The June 2025 Jobs Report & May 2025 JOLTS: The Current U.S. Employment Situation

June 2025 U.S. job numbers from the BLS exceeded expectations and showed a solid market: 147,000 new jobs, a 4.1% unemployment rate, and 7.0 million unemployed people. Economists were forecasting a 4.3% unemployment rate and an increase of 110,000 jobs.

“If you squint, you can find things in this report to be concerned about. Private-sector hiring slowed, especially outside of health care. The labor force shrank. The number of people who have been out of work for more than six months rose,” said Ben Casselman of the New York Times. “But the big picture remains one of surprising resilience — strong job growth, low unemployment and little sign that tariffs and uncertainty have so far derailed the labor market.”

The May 2025 JOLTS, released July 1, reported an unexpectedly high 7.8 million job openings – outperforming April and reaching the most we’ve seen since December 2024; quits increased to 3.3 million, hires decreased to 5.5 million, and total separations decreased to 5.2 million.

Here are more highlights from the BLS Employment Situation and JOLTS:

• Many key numbers from April’s JOLTS were revised up: job openings to 7.4 million, hires to 5.6 million, total separations to 5.3 million, quits to 3.2 million, and layoffs and discharges to 1.8 million.
• Change in total nonfarm payroll employment for April and May were revised up by a combined 16,000.
• Average hourly earnings increased by $0.08, or 0.2%, to $36.30.

Top industries hiring now include state government, health care and social assistance, construction, and leisure and hospitality. Manufacturing and professional and business services employment continued to decline month-over-month.

Per the JOLTS, job openings increased in accommodation and food services by 314,000 and finance and insurance by 91,000 while federal government job openings decreased by 39,000 and retail trade job openings decreased by 71,000.

The June 2025 jobs report painted a rosy picture of the economy with steady hiring and growth. Explore our solutions today to find the right hires for your business, or tap into our database of verified and curated jobs for 50+ specific industries if you’re looking to take your career in a new direction.