On Friday, the Labor Department reported the U.S. economy added 80,000 jobs last month, but not enough to bring the unemployment rate down. The report is barely an improvement from May’s report, which added 77,000 jobs. The unemployment rate remains at 8.2 percent. CNNMoney surveyed economists who expected to see employers add 95,000 jobs in June and the rate of unemployment to remain unchanged.
The labor market has been unpredictable this year, with job growth coming in strong during the first couple of months in 2012, then slowing down in the spring, which reportedly led many to wonder if the recovery was taking a turn for the worst. Chief Economist of Wells Fargo John Silvia said, “It’s hard for an employer to hire somebody when you don’t know what the tax rates are going to be in six months. There’s just too much uncertainty.” Nearly 12.7 million Americans remain unemployed and 41.9 percent of them have been without a job for six months or more.
