Jobless rate at 7-year low; wages stalled

WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added a solid 223,000 jobs in June, and the unemployment rate fell to 5.3 percent, a seven-year low. But wages failed to budge, and other barometers of the job market paint a mixed picture.

The unemployment rate fell from 5.5 percent in May, the Labor Department said Thursday. But the rate fell mostly because many people out of work gave up on their job searches and were no longer counted as unemployed.

In addition, the percentage of Americans working or looking for work fell to a 38-year low, a possible sign of more discouraged job-seekers. And employers added 60,000 fewer jobs in April and May combined than the government had previously estimated.

The figures capture the persistently uneven nature of the job market’s recovery from the Great Recession. More people had be-

gun looking for work in May, yet all those gains were reversed in June. And wages, which had shown signs of finally rising earlier this year, have now stalled.

Construction companies failed to add any jobs in June after hiring 15,000 in May and 30,000 in April. Manufacturing gained just 4,000 jobs in June.

But health care added 53,000 positions and retailers 33,000.

Still, over the past three months, hiring has averaged 221,000, a step up from 195,000 in the first three months of the year. That suggests that many employers are confident that consumer demand for their goods and services will remain strong enough in coming months to justify more staffers.

Thursday’s report may heighten expectations that the Fed will boost the key short-term rate it controls in September or, if not, in December.

The Fed has kept that rate at a record low near zero for 6½ years to support the economy. A Fed rate hike would lead to higher rates for mortgages, auto loans and other borrowing.

A survey of purchasing executives at manufacturing firms released this week found that factories reported a scant rise in orders in June but ramped up hiring anyway.