MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US jobless rate drops to 5.3% in June, but factory orders fell strongly in May

Employment gains in June were made across a number of sectors, particularly business services, health care, retail, financial activities and transportation

US employment rose by 223,000 in June, while the April and May figures were revised down, official figures show. May's figure was revised from a rise of 280,000 jobs to a rise of 254,000, according to the US Labor Department.

 Despite the slower growth, the jobless rate fell to 5.3% from 5.5%, but that was in part due to people dropping out of the labor force.

Meanwhile, factory orders fell in May by the largest amount in three months, the Commerce Department said.

Employment gains in June were made across a number of sectors, particularly business services, health care, retail, financial activities and transportation, the Labor Department said.

The labor force shrunk by 432,000 in June, following a sharp increase in May.

This pushed the labor force participation rate, the percentage of the labor force in employment, down to 62.6%, the lowest rate since 1977. And the 5.3% unemployment is now the lowest since April 2008.

The average monthly increase in employment over the past 12 months has been 250,000.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department said factory orders fell 1% in May from April, when orders contracted by 0.7%. The figure reflected a big fall in demand for commercial aircraft, the department said. But, even excluding this, factory orders were only up by 0.1%.

The weaker economic data relieves some of the pressure on the Federal Reserve for an early interest rate rise, which many economists had forecast for September.