A better-than-expected jobs report for June powered the Dow Jones industrial average above 17,000 for the first time. The jobs report also reduced the unemployment rate to 6.1 percent — the lowest since September 2008.
The Dow’s 92-point pop on Thursday took the index to 17,068.26, up 0.6 percent for the day and up 1.3 percent for the holiday-shortened week. The S&P 500 also reached a new high, at 1,985.44, with daily and weekly percentage gains identical to the Dow’s.
In addition to the strong employment data, investors cheered the modest rise in average hourly earnings for employees on private nonfarm payrolls.
The 6-cent increase recorded for the month brought the hourly average to $24.45, translating into year-over-year wage inflation of 2 percent — hardly enough to derail the Fed’s unusually accommodative monetary policy.
The 288,000 new jobs reported for June by the Bureau of Labor Statistics marked the fifth consecutive month with employment increases of at least 200,000 and capped the best half-year for job growth since 1999.
And though the reported growth soared past the 215,000 jobs economists had been predicting for June, Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez kept whatever exuberance it engendered at bay.
“There’s plenty of work still to do to empower the middle class,” he said. “Too many people, despite their best efforts, are still struggling to make ends meet, finding the American Dream beyond their grasp.”
The month saw the unemployment rate for teenagers increase to 21 percent, for example. And while the rate declined for blacks, it continues to hover above 10 percent.
Also unsettling was the split between full-time and part-time jobs. Full-time jobs decreased by 523,000 in June, according to a BLS survey, whereas as part-time jobs soared by 799,000.
Overall, though, June’s job gains reduced unemployment by 0.2 percentage points for the month and by 1.4 percentage points for the year.
And in terms of sectors, professional and business services made an especially strong showing by adding 67,000 positions. This compared with an average increase for the sector of 53,000 jobs in each of the prior 12 months.
Retail trade employment followed with an increase of 40,000 jobs in June, compared with an average previous monthly increase of 26,000.
Food services was the third-most active sector, with a gain of 33,000; then health, with 21,000; transportation, with 17,000 and financial activities, also with 17,000; and manufacturing, with 16,000.
The number of unemployed, meanwhile, decreased in June by 325,000, to 9.5 million — down from 11.8 million at the beginning of the year.
The decrease was especially pronounced among the long-term unemployed — those jobless for 27 weeks or more — whose ranks were thinned by 293,000.
More than 3 million remain in that condition, however, accounting for nearly a third of the unemployment total.