Why June's Unemployment Data Could Cause Confusion About How Fast the Economy Is Improving
On July 2, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released data on unemployment numbers for the month of June. Those numbers showed the economy gained 4.8 million jobs last month, bringing the unemployment rate down from 13.3% to 11.1%.
The report had some bad news in that it showed that the U.S. has still only recovered about one-third of the overall job losses since the coronavirus pandemic took hold. And it showed that permanent job losses for the month hit 2.9 million, a figure that increased by about 500,000 jobs from the previous month.
But the report can also be considered good news as it's a clear sign of some economic recovery in the country. And, in fact, this news may even be better than it seems on the surface for one key reason: There was a problem with the way the data was collected last month, which the BLS aimed to correct with this new round of employment numbers.
Source Fool.com
