The U.S. economy posted strong job growth in June, with a net gain of 222,000 jobs. Friday's report from the Labor Department also says the unemployment rate edged up slightly to 4.4 percent. The one-tenth of a percent increase is due to more people, perhaps encouraged by mostly positive economic news, resuming their search for work. About 7 million Americans are counted as unemployed. Another 1.6 million are not working but not counted as officially unemployed because they have not sought jobs in the past four weeks. Another 5 million people want full-time jobs but can find only part-time employment. June's job gains were concentrated in health care, business services and restaurants. Wages grew about 2.5 percent in June from the same period a year earlier. That is just slightly above the rate of inflation.