“A strong 850,000 net new jobs were added in June. Residential construction workers and general contractors rose by 15,200, showing that more homes will be completed in the upcoming months and more housing inventory will be added. Commercial real estate shaved 11,700 construction and contractor jobs in June, marking a third straight month of decline, which assures no oversupply in the office and retail sectors.
Even with the job additions, the unemployment rate edged up a notch to 5.9% as more people began searching for a job. To be officially counted as unemployed, one has to look for a job. The jobless rate was 4.4% before the pandemic by comparison, and 14.8% during the lockdown. Interestingly, the teen unemployment rate is lower now compared to the pre-pandemic. Salute to them. Let’s hope that many are saving up and starting to invest.
Consistent large monthly job gains over the past year have still not been enough to get us back to pre-pandemic normal. The economy still needs to add 6.8 million more jobs to get us to the pre-pandemic peak condition of February 2020. It could be another 12 months before we reach that high mark. More construction jobs and training will be needed to build more homes and for a federal government infrastructure spending boost.”
