By Sarah Chaney

The jobless rate fell to 11.1% in June as the U.S. regained 4.8 million jobs, but a recent coronavirus spike could hamper the labor market's recovery

Job growth in June followed May's payroll gain of 2.7 million and showed Americans are slowly getting back to work. But the U.S. labor market is operating with millions fewer jobs than in February, the month before the coronavirus pandemic struck the U.S. economy.

The jobless rate, down from 13.3% in May, is still well elevated at historically high levels compared to before the coronavirus drove the U.S. into a deep recession. Until March, the unemployment rate was hovering around a 50-year low of 3.5%.

The number of new applications for jobless benefits fell by 55,000 to 1.43 million last week, the Labor Department said in a separate report Thursday. Unemployment claims have come down from a peak of nearly 7 million in late March but have stabilized near a historically high 1.5 million, an indication companies continue to cut jobs.

-Eric Morath contributed to this article.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 02, 2020 08:58 ET (12:58 GMT)