US employers add 224,000 jobs even as labor market cools from 2018

U.S. employers added 224,000 workers in June, buoying a choppy labor market whose growth remains significantly slower than in 2018.

Payrolls in the country have expanded by an average 172,000 positions a month in 2019, according to the U.S. Labor Department, down from 223,000 the year before. The agency also reduced preliminary numbers from the previous two months, slicing May's gains to 72,000 and April's to 216,000, for a total decrease of 11,000.

The data from the Labor Department offers a gauge of the effects of President Trump's global trade disputes, covering a period after the White House had more than doubled some tariffs on Chinese goods and was threatening double-digit duties on all remaining imports from the world's second-largest economy.

More