NPR News: 07-02-2026 5PM EDT

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Ryland Barton· Host0:15

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton. Job growth slowed sharply last month. NPR's Scott Horsley reports US employers added just fifty-seven thousand jobs in June, less than half as many as the month before.

Scott Horsley0:30

After several months of relatively strong job growth, the pace of hiring slowed in June. Healthcare continued to add workers, but not in great numbers, and leisure and hospitality saw a net loss of jobs. Revised figures also show that hiring was weaker than initially reported in April and May, with a combined downgrade of seventy-four thousand jobs. The unemployment rate dipped last month to four point two percent, but only because more than seven hundred thousand people dropped out of the workforce. For people who are working, average wages were up three and a half percent from a year ago, but that's likely not enough to keep pace with inflation. Prices have been climbing at an annual rate of more than four percent. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

Ryland Barton· Host1:12

A federal grand jury has indicted a man accused of vandalizing the Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. As NPR's Joe Hernandez reports, the felony destruction of property charge carries a potential sentence of up to ten years in prison.

Joe Hernandez1:25

US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeannine Pirro, says David Hern allegedly