jolt that s going to have some tremendous growth later on in the year. it s been five years since the recession ended. 288,000 jobs as i just mentioned were added in june. yet consumers spending is still weak. what do you attribute to those jobs numbers? do you feel they re strong enough or should they be stronger? so, two parts to that. the first is that we actually dig into the jobs numbers. the 288 was a great number. but when you dig into you realize that a significant portion of that were part-time jobs or lower-paying jobs. in fact the household survey says that we lost over 500,000 permanent jobs. now they were replaced by 800,000 part-time jobs. so the job number looks good. but the quality of the jobs we re creating are not there and you see that household income, the wages only increased 2% in the last 12 months. so we re not paying people enough. but more people are working? we got more people working, which is a positive. and you ve got to get them in
volunteers. good job there. yes. our heroes. now a lot of people have been waiting for this ishs the economy added 288,000 jobs in june. yeah, but that s not all. employers added 1.4 million jobs in the first six months of the year. that s the strongest six months of job growth in eight years. cnn chief business correspondent christine romans breaks down the numbers for us. christine, good morning. alison and victor, look within the numbers. by now you ve seen the headline. 288,000 jobs created. the trend is important here, because the trend is telling us that there is some momentum gathering on the jobs front. the best first six months of the year as the white house likes to point out, since 1999. the best six months overall for jobs creation since 2006. so you re seeing a trend of companies more confident, they have been kept hiring to the bone for so long, as demand picks up, having to add workers. i like to look within the numbers of different sector. professional and b
stretched thin trying to hold the cities they have already seized. the employment picture in america is bright. 288,000 new jobs were added in june. more than expected, and that sent stocks soaring. the unemployment rate fell to 6.1%. president obama says this shows the economy is building momentum. he says the u.s. could be making stronger progress if washington focused an people instead of politics. a group of lawmakers got a firsthand look at the border crisis yesterday. members of congress toured a facility in texas where undocumented immigrants are being held. meanwhile, texas officials say they may sue the department of homeland security. a spokesman told nbc news that a request for $30 million for border enforcement went unanswered. more than 52,000 unaccompanied children have crossed the border since october 1st. all right. let s go back to hurricane arthur. and meteorologist bill karins who has been tracking this storm overnight. category 2.
a lot of delays. a lot of money spent on your gas tank. americans are expected to pay an average of $3.67 per gallon this weekend. there s some good economic news here for the holiday from the june jobs report. the labor department reported that 288,000 net new jobs were created last month and the unemployment rate dipped to 6.1%. a nearly six-year low. markets reacted to the news. the dow jones closed about above 17,000 for the first time ever on thursday. and president obama hailed the jobs report as a sign of progress while speaking at the tech incubator 1776. this is also the first time we ve seen five consecutive months of job growth over 200,000 since 1999. and we ve seen the quickest drop in unemployment in 30 years.
unemployment rate ticked down to 6.1. 288,000 total jobs added. in fact the april and may numbers were also revised upwards as well. that s the lowest unemployment rate we have seen since 2008, since before the great recession started. why do you think it is that there s still poll data that shows that americans still don t like the way that president obama is handling the economy? there s this quinnipiac poll out showing that 55% disapprove, 45% approve. how do you reconcile those two things? they haven t studied the situation. they haven t studied the facts. we ve now had five weeks of or rather five months of over 220,000 jobs, the first time that has happened since the roaring 90s. and the unemployment number is very important because it s for the first time in many months that the number of people being employed, not the number of people that are giving up and not looking for work. so this is a very positive sign.