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

There were significant revisions to June’s numbers as well. Change in nonfarm payroll employment was revised down by 125,000 and 133,000 for May and June, respectively. July’s job gains outperformed June’s revised 14,000, yet fell below the Dow Jones’ estimate of 100,000.

The June 2025 JOLTS, released Tuesday, showed 7.4 million job openings, 5.2 million hires, and 5.1 million total separations – all decreases compared to May’s revised numbers.

Here are more takeaways from the July 2025 U.S. job numbers and June JOLTS U.S. jobs data:

• The quits rate held at 2.0% for the third consecutive month, while the hires rate ticked down from 3.4% to 3.3% and the total separations rate decreased slightly from 3.3% to 3.2%.
• Wages rose by $0.12 (0.3%) to $36.44, with a 3.9% increase in average hourly earnings over the past 12 months.
• The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls ticked up by 0.1 hour to 34.3 hours.
• The civilian labor force participation rate continued to steadily decrease month-over-month, reaching 62.2%.

What industries are hiring now?

Of note in the June 2025 JOLTS, accommodation and food services job openings decreased by 308,000 and health care and social assistance job openings decreased by 244,000; job openings in retail trade increased by 190,000.

July 2025 U.S. job numbers showed health care and social assistance adding 73,300 jobs, retail trade adding 15,700 jobs, and financial activities adding 15,000 jobs.

Professional and business services employment decreased by 14,000 jobs, and federal government employment continued to decline (-12,000). Manufacturing lost 11,000 jobs.

This month’s weak jobs data and revisions to prior months’ jobs numbers show a market that might not have been as strong as previously believed. Combining that with the latest tariffs imposed by President Trump and the greater possibility of interest rate cuts, there’s a lot going on right now.

“With a single report, the understanding of the U.S. economy has shifted,” wrote Neil Irwin and Courtenay Brown of Axios.

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