Reclaiming Common Sense

The June Employment Situation Was Remarkable - Plenty to Say

Record June Level of Men and Women Working Full-time Jobs


The June Jobs Report, or Employment Situation Report, was remarkable. We have a record level of Full-time Jobs (FT) and a record level of combined FT and Part-time Jobs (See "June Jobs Report Records Record Employment, Jobs" ). We saw the worker data rise dramatically, non-seasonally adjusted, and improve nicely seasonally adjusted. Wages were up 3.84%, non-seasonally adjusted, while workers were up 1.65% and hours worked were up 4.87%. When all of this growth is combined gross wages were up 6.60% (See "June Workers, Hours Worked, and Wages Rose.") President Trump has overseen the creation of the most FT jobs during the first 29 months of a Presidency since 1981. Only he and former President Clinton have added FT jobs while cutting unemployment during their first 29 months in office. (See "Five Presidents at 29 Months: Jumping Junes.") How are men and women doing compared to prior to the Great Recession?



Men lost more full-time jobs than women during the Great Recession. Men lost 10.621 million full-time (FT) jobs between July 2007 and January 2010. Women lost 3.849 million full-time jobs. The thing to remember here is that during June of 2007, the month prior to peak employment/peak jobs, there were 71 million men working FT jobs and 51.2 million women working FT jobs. Men were working 8.2 million Part-Time (PT) jobs while women were working 16.6 million PT jobs. It was not until the Summer of 2016 that men recovered all of their lost full-time jobs, for the first time. These lost jobs were recovered and lost again during 2017. These full-time jobs were recovered once again during 2018 and were maintained.  Right now there is a record level of men working according to the Current Population Survey (CPS) jobs data.


Women saw a quicker recovery of Lost Jobs than men. Women recovered their lost full-time jobs by the Summer of 2015 and have maintained those gains, and added to them. Women have added more full-time jobs than men because men have spent a decade recovering from the last recession.  Women worked, and work ,fewer full-time jobs than men work. Women worked, and work, more part-time jobs than men.



Best form of unemployment insurance is a second job.  The level of total multiple job workers (Multiple Job Holders, or MJH) approached 8 million workers this month. This is the second highest June level of multiple workers since the data was collected. We set the record of June MJH during June 2002 when we hit 8.214 million MJH. This month we had 7.987 million MJH. It is important to note that we had a June Record Level of Dual Part-time Job workers (PT PT.) There were 4.340 million people working FT PT, 2.052 million working PT PT, 330,000 working FT FT and 1.265 million people who workers variable hours, or possibly PT FT. When, if, someone loses one job they still have the other. They do not get unemployment benefits even if they lose a full-time job.


The breakdown of multiple job workers by gender resembles the "regular" CPS data for FT and PT jobs.

  • Men worked 3.893 million MJH jobs. They worked 2.340 million FT PT jobs, 684,000 PT PT jobs, 213,000 FT FT jobs and 656,000 PT FT jobs.
  • Women worked 4.094 million MJH. Women worked 2.00 million FT PT jobs, 1.368 million PT PT jobs, and 118,000 FT FT jobs, with 608,000 in the PT FT category

This means that men work more dual FT jobs than work, and women work more dual PT jobs than men work.


Unemployment was the lowest for the month of June since June of 1999. The unemployment level during June 1999 was 6.271 million. The level this month was 6.292 million. We have more than 21,000 more  people working FT jobs after 20 years.To find a lower NSA U-3 you have to look to June 1974 when we had 5.459 million unemployed workers. There are 929,000 fewer unemployed men this June compared to June 2007. There are 329,000 fewer unemployed women compared to June 2007. Do not confuse the U-3 unemployment level with the weekly claims data. The U-3 measures people out of work who are actively looking for work. The continuing claims data measures those who are out of work, who are looking for work, who recently lost a job that qualified for unemployment benefits. Big difference.


Men and women are swapping PT jobs for FT jobs. Last June there were 73.907 million men working FT, 9.508 million working PT, and 3.573 million unemployed. This means that we have 800,00 more men working FT and 80,000 fewer men working PT this June compared to last June. Women were working 56.0 million FT jobs, 17.0 million PT jobs. This means that there are 750,000 more women working FT jobs this June than last June. There are 163,000 fewer women working PT jobs. Men and women are swapping PT  jobs for FT jobs and more workers are finding FT jobs.


It's the Economy.