NPR News: 07-02-2026 9AM EDT

Speaker 10:00

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

Scott Horsley0:14

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.

Speaker 10:56

In Venezuela, people are still searching for survivors of last week's back-to-back earthquakes. The death toll is nearly twenty-three hundred people. As John Otis reports, much of the search work has fallen to international rescue teams.

Michael Topher· Soundbite1:10

Keep scooping. Keep scooping.

Speaker 11:12

In the coastal town of Carabayllo, members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department are searching for three girls trapped in a collapsed building.

Michael Topher· Soundbite1:21

It's all, 'cause all the dust and the dirt just keeps going into the hole.

Speaker 11:24

LA firefighter Michael Topher says they've heard signs of life.

Michael Topher· Soundbite1:29

What we're hearing