A board above the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange shows the closing number for the Dow Jones industrial average Thursday4. The Dow Jones industrial average closed above17,000 for the first time Thursday, the index’s first big 1,000-point milestone this year, following news that hiring in the U.S. accelerated last month.WASHINGTON – A surprisingly robust job market is energizing the 5-year-old U.S. recovery and driving the economy closer to full health.
Employers added 288,000 jobs in June and helped cut the unemployment rate to 6.1 percent, the lowest since 2008. It was the fifth straight gain above 200,000 – the best such stretch since the late 1990s tech boom.
The stock market signaled its approval. The Dow Jones industrial average surged 92 points to top 17,000 for the first time.
The breadth and consistency of the job growth are striking in part because of how poorly the year began. The economy shrank at a steep 2.9 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter as a harsh winter contributed to the sharpest contraction since the depths of the recession.
Yet employers have shrugged off that setback. They’ve kept hiring.