Unemployment rate declines in June

The unemployment rate declined to 5.3% in June from 5.5% in May. The number of unemployed persons declined by 375,000 to 8.3 million.

The number of long-term unemployed (for 27 weeks or more) declined by 381,000 to 2.1 million in June, which accounted for 25.8% of the unemployed. Over the past 12 months, the number of long-term unemployed has declined by 955,000.

The civilian labor force declined by 432,000 in June. The labor force participation rate declined by 0.3 percentage point to 62.6% in June.

Employment in professional and business services increased by 64,000 in June.

Employment in retail trade increased by 33,000 in June and has risen by 300,000 over the year.

Employment in other major industries, including construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, information and government, showed little or no change over the month.