Wage and salary employment continued a slow but gradual gain in June with total jobs up 0.5 percent and those in the private sector up 0.7 percent over June, 2018. This is up from a gain of 0.3 percent of total jobs in May, compared with the same month of the previous year. In both months increasing petroleum and construction employment led the gain, with oil and gas up 5.3 percent in both May and June and construction up 3.9 percent in May and 6.9 percent in June. Health care jobs growth is slowing, with May showing a 1.1 percent increase and June a 0.5 percent gain over the same months of 2018. Healthcare has seen much more vigorous growth for some time and some of the slowing is no doubt due to uncertainty over recent state budget cuts. At least two major provider groups have curtailed plans for expansions due to the reductions. Professional and business service employment, a key indicator since it reflects work in engineering and related fields, gained 0.7 percent in June and 1.1 percent in May, the first increases after several years of decline. Retail jobs were up 0.6 percent in May and 0.3 percent in June.