A store window with a help wanted sign.
(Image credit: Tim Boyle/Getty Images)

The U.S. economy added 224,000 jobs in June, far exceeding economists' forecast of about 170,000 and marking a strong rebound from May's weak 75,000-job gain.

The Labor Department also reported Friday that the unemployment rate rose to 3.7 percent from 3.6 percent, as an additional 300,000 people entered the work force looking for jobs. The new figure is still near a 50-year low. The June job gains were well above the level economists view as enough to expand the labor force. The average wage increased by 6 cents to $27.90 an hour, and the 12-month rate of hourly wage gains remained unchanged at 3.1 percent.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.