CNN: “The Jobs Market Is Like The Energizer Bunny”; Unemployment Rate Was Expected To Go Up, It Didn’t”
CNN senior reporter Matt Egan said the jobs market “is like the Energizer Bunny” in a report on the current status of the U.S. economy.
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking just moments ago, the June jobs report showing stronger than expected growth. The jobs market is still humming along. CNN’s Matt Egan joining me now to break all of this down. You expected some of this, but this is better than expected? MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, Sara, it is. Look, this jobs market is like the Energizer Bunny. Every single time we expect it to run out of steam, it just keeps going and going. So, these new numbers show that the U.S. economy added 147,000 jobs in June. That was well ahead of the expectation of about 118,000, well ahead of some whispers that we heard on Wall Street of a sub 100,000 number. So, this is indeed beating expectations. We were also expecting a slowdown. We did not get that. This is basically in line with May, which was revised higher. It’s also good news. The unemployment rate was expected to go up. It didn’t. It went down to 4.1 percent. That is a very healthy number. This is still relatively historically low. And again, it’s below the 4.3 percent that we had expected. When we look at the trend in the jobs market, you can see that things have slowed down from last year, but not in alarming fashion, right? We did expect to have weaker numbers here in the last few months. And so, really, things are holding up a lot better than feared. The unemployment rate, again, it’s nowhere near where it was a few years ago. It does remain, look at this, the unemployment rate, it’s still hovering at very low levels. Now, digging into where the jobs are. We did see significant job gains for health care and social assistance, adding 59,000. Leisure and hospitality, that’s bars, restaurants, 20,000. But there was job loss in two notable areas, manufacturing. Seven thousand jobs lost last month alone. That’s the exact opposite of what the president wants with his high tariff strategy. The federal government losing 7,000. And that is, of course, a result of DOGE really taking an axe to the federal workforce. But still, big picture when you put it all together, this is a lot better than expected. And it does suggest that this jobs market is holding up better than feared.
