Robust hiring continues in June

Businesses hired robustly in June despite threats of trade tensions. Some 213,000 jobs were added, the Labor Department reported Friday, making for the second month in a row with figures above 200,000. 

Unemployment ticked up slightly to 4 percent as more people entered the labor force.

Job growth this year has been faster than in 2017, with 1.2 million jobs created so far — an average of 214,000 per month.

It is unusual for monthly job numbers to be this high nine years into an expansion. “Mostly this is a wave of tax stimulus that’s giving a short-term bump for hiring in the affected sectors,” said Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist at jobs website Glassdoor.com. 

This is a developing story.