new labor department report underlines continued job growth

The addition of 164,000 new jobs in July is one of the factors contributing to the lowest unemployment rate seen since Dwight Eisenhower was elected president in 1952.

So says Patrick Pizzella, acting Secretary of Labor, in response to the latest statistics issued by the department showing that the overall unemployment rate is now at 3.7 percent.

Noting that more than 5.7 million new jobs have been created since early 2017, Pizzella in a statement said, “Strong private-sector employment gains were led by the education and health services, professional and business services, and financial services industries.”

Pizzella also noted that the nation’s unemployment level has been at or below the 4 percent mark since early 2018.

Numbers compiled by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a total of 7.3 million job openings nationally during the month of June.

While job opening opportunities were on the upside in most industries, the report also showed more than 347,000 such openings in the construction industry in June - up from 323,000 in June of last year.

The report also indicated that the rate of job openings in the West and South has stabilized at 4.6 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively, between June of this year and June 2018. The Northeast and Midwest saw slight decreases in job openings in the last year.  

The number of construction industry job openings peaked in April of this year at 434,000.

By Garry Boulard

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