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Breaking down the June jobs report

The U.S. added 224,000 jobs last month. More importantly, nominal average hourly earnings rose by 3.1% year over year, the White House noted in a recent post.

Reproduced from 2 CNBC charts, using Federal Reserve data; Chart: Axios Visuals
"Prior to 2018, nominal average hourly wage gains had not reached 3% since April 2009."

What to watch: The education and health services sector has been been one of the strongest in the economy for much of this year and beyond.

  • The unemployment rate for workers in the sector has traditionally been much lower than for U.S. workers overall. Even during the Great Recession, education and health services workers' unemployment never touched 7%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  • Last month, despite a net increase in jobs, it rose to 3%, its highest since July 2018.
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