The economy added 372,000 jobs in June, outpacing expectations

(CNN) - The US economy added 372,000 jobs in June, an unexpected boost in hiring and a signal that the labor market remains robust despite recession fears, according to the monthly jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday.

The unemployment rate held steady at 3.6%, still close to the 52-year low last reached in the months before the pandemic hit.

The June job total, slightly down from May's revised 384,000 jobs added, far surpassed expectations.

Economists polled by Refinitiv projected 272,700 jobs would be added in June, amid a period of economic unease and growing fears that a recession is brewing.

Following the latest monthly gains, the labor market is now 524,000 jobs shy of its pre-pandemic level, BLS data shows.

The strongest job gains for June came from the professional and business services, leisure and hospitality and health care industries, with notable increases in areas such as food services and warehousing and storage.

Momentum remains

The labor market has remained a source of strength for the economy.

The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey data released earlier this week showed there were 11.3 million available jobs in May, or 1.9 positions for every job seeker, along with historically low levels of layoffs.

Wages in June were still on the rise, but continue to be outpaced by the highest inflation in 40 years. 

Average hourly earnings were up 5.1% during the past 12 months.

The labor force participation rate, at 62.2%, changed little from the previous month but remains below the pre-pandemic level of 63.4%.

"The job market is still plowing forward even in the face of increasing headwinds and recession fears," Daniel Zhao, Glassdoor senior economist, said in a statement.

"Even if the economy is slowing, the labor market remains a point of strength for the recovery. Strong employer demand is supporting solid but slowing job gains."

Rapidly rising prices have the Federal Reserve in the throes of a campaign of successive rate hikes in order to cool the economy.

"The employment report does nothing to dissuade Federal Reserve officials from sticking to their interest rate raising plans, looking to send inflation down, and closer to their 2% target," said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst for Bankrate, in a statement.

"The next key reading for the Fed is the Consumer Price Index due in the days ahead."

The pandemic continues to weigh on workers

The pandemic prevented more Americans from re-entering the job market in June, which saw an increase in Covid-19 cases from May.

Among those out of the labor force, some 610,000 people could not look for work in June because of the pandemic, up from 455,000 in the previous month.

It's the first increase in this measure since the Omicron variant swept the nation in January.

The most recent Household Pulse Survey from the Census Bureau also showed that the pandemic took more of a toll on Americans' ability to work in June.

Nearly 3.7 million people said they were not working because they were sick with Covid symptoms or were caring for someone who was sick, according to the survey, taken in the first two weeks of June.

This figure was 3.1 million in the prior survey, taken between late April and early May.