Key Points:
- Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 339,000 in May and the unemployment rate rose to 3.7%.
- Consensus among economists was a gain of 190,000 jobs.
- Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult women (3.3%) and Blacks (5.6%) rose in May.
- Professional and business services added 64,000 jobs in May, government employment increased by 56,000, health care added 52,000 jobs, leisure and hospitality added 48,000 jobs, and construction rose by 25,000.
- Employment was little changed over the month in other major industries, including mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, information, financial activities; and other services.
- In May, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by $0.11 to $33.44.
- The average workweek for all private employees edged down by 0.1 hour to 34.3 hours.
- The labor force participation rate was unchanged at 62.6% and is 0.7% below its February 2020 level.
- In May, the unemployed population rose to 6.1 million but job openings also rose to 10.1 million in April.