Donald Trump announces that US added 5million new jobs in June despite coronavirus

Donald Trump has announced that the United States added five million new jobs in June despite coronavirus continuing to wreak havoc on the economy.

Speaking at the White House on Thursday, President Trump said: ‘It was just put out that the US economy added almost five million jobs in the month of June, shattering all expectations. The stock market is doing extremely well, which means jobs. this is the largest monthly jobs gain in the history of our country.’

Trump said the US unemployment rate has fallen by 2% in the last month, to 11%. He said that June’s figure comprised of 2.1million leisure and hospitality jobs, 740,000 retail roles, 560,000 new jobs in education and healthcare, 360,000 service industry jobs, and 356,000 manufacturing jobs.

The president, who has been accused of stoking racial tension in the US, also spoke of job figures for African-Americans, saying: ‘African-American workers, really happily for me made historic gains, with 404,000 jobs added last month alone.’

Trump added: ‘Today’s announcement proves our economy is roaring back, it’s coming back extremely strong.’

Last month, 2.7million new jobs were created as the US economy began to reopen in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. More than 40 million people have applied for unemployment benefits since the crisis began, although many have headed back to work as states begin to reopen. Figures released by the US Labor Department on Thursday showed that a further 1.4million people have filed for unemployment benefits in the last week.

And especially hard-hit bars and restaurants now face a further struggle for survival as spikes in states including Texas, California, Arizona and Florida saw state governors ordered them to close again.

White House immunologist Dr Anthony Fauci said bars were one of the easiest places for Covid-19 to spread. Former world coronavirus epicenter New York has dramatically reduced its coronavirus diagnoses and deaths, but halted plans to begin letting diners into restaurants again from July 6 after seeing statistics from surging states.

The United States has seen more than 2.7million confirmed coronavirus cases, and 130,000 deaths.

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