In the month of May total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 75,000, well below economists’ expectations of 175,000 for the month. However, The unemployment rate remained at 3.6 percent, a near 50-year low and May 2019 is the 104th-consecutive month of job gains. Additionally, it was the 15th straight month of the unemployment rate at or below 4 percent. The labor force participation rate also remained unchanged at 62.8 percent, signifying that there are still plenty of jobs available for workers.
Additionally, the number of unemployed Americans stayed relatively constant in May at 5.9 million. And the number of long-term unemployed, defined by those who are jobless for at least 27 weeks, also experienced a small decrease, hovering around 1.3 million, or 22.4 percent of the unemployed persons.
Wages also saw a bump of $0.06 to $27.83 in the month of May.
Jobs Report Revisions
Total nonfarm payroll employment revisions are down over the last two months. In April, job gains are down from 263,000 to 224,000. Additionally, March job gains were revised down from 189,000 to 153,000. With these revisions, job gains over the last two months declined 75,000 jobs than previously reported. However, over the last three months, job gains averaged an impressive 151,000 jobs. And throughout 2019, monthly job gains have averaged out to be 164,000.
By Industry
Employment in Professional and Business Services continued to increase with the addition of 33,000 jobs in the month of May. And over the last 12 months, the industry has gained 498,000 jobs.
Last month, Healthcare generated 16,000 jobs, reaching a 12-month total of 391,000 jobs over the last year.
The Construction industry changed little with a total of 4,000 job gains in May. Over the past 12 months, Construction has generated 215,000 jobs.
There was little to no change in other major industries, including mining, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities, leisure and hospitality, and government.
