By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- The recovery in the U.S. labor market appeared to strengthen in June, with 850,000 people finding a job, according to Labor Department figures released Friday.
The headline nonfarm payrolls number was well above a consensus forecast of 700,000. In addition, May's nonfarm payrolls gain was revised up by 24,000 to 583,000.
However, other elements of the report weren't as unambiguously positive. The unemployment rate rose to 5.9% of the workforce, instead of falling to 5.7% as expected. That suggests that people who lost their jobs during the pandemic still aren't rejoining the labor force as quickly as could be hoped for.
The participation rate, which measures employment relative to the total working age population, also remained stuck at May's level of 61.6%.
U.S. stock futures gained on the news, on the perception that the weaker-looking parts of the report will provide fresh arguments for keeping unprecedented amounts of monetary stimulus in place. The Federal Reserve is still injecting $120 billion a month into the financial system through bond purchases, despite increasing signs of overheating in some areas of the economy such as the housing market, and broader signs of rising inflation in the economy at large.
Rising wage pressures, often a key concern of inflation hawks, came out a little weaker in the report that had been expected. Average hourly earnings growth slowed to 0.3% from 0.4% in May, while their 3.6% annual growth rate was also below the 3.7% expected.