Unemployment Rate Rises to 9.2% in June; Trucking Adds 4,400 Jobs

The U.S. unemployment rate rose a tenth of a point in June to 9.2%, the highest level this year, while the economy added 18,000 jobs to payrolls, the Labor Department said Friday.

Trucking added 4,400 workers, while the total transportation and warehousing sector grew by 3,600 jobs, Labor figures showed.

Economists had forecast the unemployment rate would hold steady at May’s level of 9.1%, Bloomberg reported.

The payrolls gain was the smallest in nine months and followed a revised 25,000 increase in May that was less than half the 54,000 increase originally reported.

The payroll and unemployment figures are obtained by separate surveys, with payrolls from a survey of employers and the unemployment rate from a survey of households.

Economists had forecast 90,000 new jobs for June, CNBC reported.

Private hiring rose by 57,000, below projections of 132,000 new jobs. Government payrolls fell by 39,000.

Factory employment increased by 6,000. Service employment rose by 14,000 jobs, the least since September.