The U.S. added 147,000 jobs in June, boosted by hiring in state government and health case, while the unemployment rate remained largely unchanged at 4.1%.
The figures are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Those gains helped offset the loss of jobs in the federal government, with a drop of 7,000. The losses, fueled by the Trump administration’s broad cuts to the workforce, are expected to continue as paid leave and severance pay for federal workers start to expire. Overall, employment in the federal government is down 69,000 since January.
Employment in movies and music grew by 2,400, to 415,100, while broadcasting and content providers lost about 500 jobs, to 334,000.
The figures were better than expected. A survey released on Wednesday from ADP showed a loss of 33,000 private sector jobs.
The BLS typically revises its figures from prior months as more information is gathered. It revised employment figures for April up by 11,000 jobs to 158,000, and for May by 5,000 jobs to 144,000.
“The economy is looking like the little engine that could, huffing and puffing up that hill,” Justin Wolfers, professor of economics at the University of Michigan, wrote on X. He added that most of the growth was “outside the market sector,” while the goods producing sector, under the threat of tariffs, showed a 4,000 job loss in May and a 6,000 job gain in June.
