According to the latest data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the nonfarm payrolls in the USA increased by 206,000 during June against the market forecast of 190,000. In simple words, 206,000 jobs were created in the USA in June, while the market experts were looking forward to a number between 190,000.
The BLS has also revised May's reading from 272,000 to around 218,000, which means the current month's job data was weaker than the previous one!
The data also showed that the unemployment rate inched higher during June, from 4% to 4.1%. Similarly, the labor force participation rate has gone up from 62.5% to 62.6%, a change of +0.1%.
Finally, wage inflation shows that it has declined from 4.1% to 3.9% y/y, in line with the market forecasts. The wage inflation forecast is used to measure any changes happening in the average hourly earnings.
Additionally, the total NFP for April also underwent revision from a reading of 165K to 108K, showing a change of -57K. As for the month of May, the data was also revised down with a change of around -54,000. These revisions mean the employment situation during April and May was around 111K lower than the earlier readings.
After the release of the nonfarm payrolls data, the greenback came under selling pressure as the NFP report doesn't show a good picture of the labor market. For now, the DXY (US Dollar Index) is trading at 104.90 with a change of -0.2% for the day.
If we compare the NFP report for June against May, there's a difference of 12,000 jobs. This is despite the fact that the numbers from May were revised lower by a great deal! So, when we say that the labor market is not as strong as it used to be in the past, it is based on real data rather than speculation.