NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Despite inflation and the concerns of a coming recession, last month the country saw a hiring surge.
This kept the unemployment rate close to its pre-pandemic low.
Employers added 372,000 jobs, the Labor Department said Friday, surpassing the 270,000 economists had expected.
The government reported increases in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and health care. The information sector, despite high-profile layoffs at tech companies in May and June, gained 25,000 jobs.
The unemployment rate remained at 3.6%, close to its pre-pandemic low.
"Today's jobs report is a milestone marking a more-than-full recovery in private-sector employment," Julia Pollak, labor economist at ZipRecruiter, said in a note. "Employment gains were surprisingly broad-based, with gains even in those industries that tend to be most sensitive to interest rate hikes."
It was just in March, Tennessee marked a milestone with unemployment dropping to its lowest rate in history to 3.2%.
The state reports we reached this historic low just 23 months after it marked its all-time highest unemployment rate of 15.9% in April 2020, during the height of pandemic-related business closures across the state.
The report also found average hourly wages are falling behind, which is making it difficult to keep up with inflation.
