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July 2 (UPI) -- The U.S. economy added more than 800,000 jobs during the month of June, the Labor Department said in its monthly workforce assessment on Friday -- significantly better than most economists had predicted. The report said about 850,000 payrolls were created last month.
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Most analysts had predicted Friday's report would show an addition of a little more than 700,000 jobs for the month.
The department said the unemployment rate for the month was 5.9%, basically unchanged from May.
"Notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, public and private education, professional and business services, retail trade, and other services," the department said in its report.
About 559,000 jobs were added in May, which was the second consecutive month that did not meet expectations. Friday's report topped expectations by about 150,000 jobs.
Late Friday morning, President Joe Biden praised the jobs report and said recent efforts have helped move the economy forward.
"Since I've taken office, we have now created an average of 600,000 per month and more than three million since I took office," he said. "This is historic progress, pulling our economy out of the worst crisis in 100 years."
Biden noted that the Congressional Budget Office has doubled its projected economic growth and lessened the projected impact on the national deficit.
While some employers have complained they're having trouble hiring workers, Biden said it's a good thing to have businesses compete for employees, which typically leads to higher wages and better working conditions.
Earlier this week, ADP and Moody's Analytics reported that close to 700,000 private-sector jobs were added in June.
The Labor Department reported Thursday that there were about 364,000 new unemployment claims last week, the lowest weekly total since March 2020.
