US Employers Add 80,000 Jobs As Economy Struggles
7/6/2012
The US economy generated 80,000 jobs in June but nobody's breaking out the party gear. 80,000 new jobs is an improvement from May, but it's the third straight month of lackluster hiring and shows that the economy is still struggling three years after the recession ended.
The economy is growing too slowly to lower the unemployment rate which remained unchanged at 8.2%, prolonging what has been the longest stretch of above 8% unemployment in more than a half century.
There were some good signs in the report. The average work week grew to 34.5 hours from 34.4 in May, boosting many workers' paychecks. And average hourly pay rose 6 cents to $23.50. Hourly pay has increased 2 percent in the past year and is ahead of inflation, which has fallen in recent months along with gas prices
There are still almost 13 million Americans looking for work.