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August 07, 2020US EMPLOYMENT, JULY 2020 The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that US non-farm payroll employment increased by 1.8 million from June to July 2020, following an increase of 4.8 million in June and 2.7 million in May.
The US unemployment rate has fallen 0.9 percentage points to 10.2 per cent. These improvements in the labor market reflected a continued resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed in March and April due to the COVID-19 and efforts to contain it.
Employment fell by 22.2 million in March and April combined. Despite the monthly increase, nonfarm employment in July was 8.4 per cent (12.9 million) below its February level. The strongest employment increases occurred in leisure and hospitality, government, retail trade, professional and business services, other services, and health care in July 2020. Employment continued to decline in mining.
The US unemployment rate declined by 0.9 percentage points to 10.2 per cent in July. US unemployment decreased by 1.4 million to 16.3 million in July. Although unemployment decreased in May, June and July, the US unemployment rate increased by 6.7 percentage points and the number of unemployed persons increased by 10.6 million since February 2020 due to COVID-19 and efforts to contain it.
The US participation rate decreased 0.1 percentage point to 61.4 per cent of the working age population in July, following an increase in May and June.
The US employment to population ratio was up by 0.5 percentage point to 55.1 per cent in July but 6.0 percentage points lower than its February level.
The reference week for the US household survey was July 12th through July 18th.
Note: Canadian and US labour force statistics refer to different working-age cohorts.
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics news release, Commissioner's Statement on the Employment Situation
Statistics Canada. Table 14-10-0287-01 Labour force characteristics, monthly, seasonally adjusted and trend-cycle
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