Unemployment rate flat, 195,000 non-farm payroll jobs added

Credit: Calculated Risk

Fresh electrons from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: the unemployment rate was unchanged in June, staying at 7.6%, with the broader U6 measurement of unemployment up 0.5% to 14.3%.

Chemical manufacturing employment was down slightly by 500 jobs to 794,500 employed.

The press is/will be focused on the payroll numbers, including the nice upwards revisions to April and May payroll numbers.

From the employment situation: "In June, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks
or more) was essentially unchanged at 4.3 million. These individuals accounted for 36.7 percent of the unemployed. Over the past 12 months, the number of long-term unemployed has declined by 1.0 million."

Both employment participation ratio and the labor force participation rate were flat, which is undesirable.

The unemployment rate ticked up slightly (0.1%) for college graduates to 3.9%, which is basically where it has been for quite some time (since February.) The unemployment rate dropped 0.4% for those who did not graduate from high school, down to 10.7%.

It strikes me that we've basically been on a flat trend with respect to employment (see the Calculated Risk graph above), with us crossing the 0.0% barrier sometime in late 2014. Yikes.

Thanks, as always, to Calculated Risk for the graph.