Labor report shows thousands of July layoffs, 4% unemployment

The unemployment rate dropped slightly during the month of July to just over 4%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The economy also shed about 23,000 jobs throughout the month, the first decrease since February in the seasonally-adjusted numbers, according to the report. Most of the employment drops stemmed from local government education and retail trade, while healthcare employment continued to grow, according to the bureau.

Among the unemployed, the number of people on temporary layoff increased by 153,000 to 921,000. The number of people without a job for less than five weeks also dropped to around 2 million, marking a 344,000 drop year to date. Longterm unemployment statistics also dropped to about 1.8 million, which accounted for just over 25% of the total unemployment in July.

How is the Trump administration responding? White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett attributed the rise in layoffs to several special circumstances while speaking with reporters on Friday. Many hospitality workers were laid off in July after the World Cup ended, and there’s been a general decline in government employment as a whole since the Department of Government Efficiency audits, Hassett told reporters.

He also noted that the school year ran longer than usual because of extra snow makeup days. Teacher summer vacations appear as temporary layoffs, and with the longer school year, those layoffs happened in July rather than June, Hassett said. Despite some negative employment growth, capital spending remained through the roof, and the economy’s momentum remained strong, he added.

Dig deeper: Read John Dawson’s report in WORLD Magazine about teens struggling to find summer jobs.