Employers added 4.8 million jobs in June, the Labor Department said Thursday. A clear indicator of the economy showing signs of recovering was the unemployment rate falling to 11.1%. That’s down from a peak of 14.7% in April.
June’s positive payroll growth was the second month of gains. This comes after a loss of more than 20 million jobs in April when the COVID-19 pandemic brought the economy to a near halt. In recent months the number of part-time workers grew exponentially fueling growth. Now, while full recovery is a ways away, these numbers are very encouraging.
President Trump called the latest job report figures, “spectacular” at a news conference an hour after they were released.
Markets Rally
Stocks on Wall Street rose on Thursday. This was followed by global markets jumping higher and extending this week’s rally to a fourth day. Data also revealed that hiring in June was stronger than originally anticipated.
The S&P 500 rose just over 1%, which gave it an average of a 4% rise for the week. Following the trend, the European indexes rose to an average of 2%. Asian indexes closed their trading session with similar results.