Key Points:
- Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 272,000 in May and the unemployment rate rose 0.1% to 4.0%.
- Consensus among economists was a gain of 185,000 jobs.
- The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for March was revised down by 5,000, from +315,000 to +310,000, and the change for April was revised down by 10,000, from +175,000 to +165,000. With these revisions, employment in March and April combined is 15,000 lower than previously reported.
- Health care added 68,000 jobs in May, government employment increased by 43,000, leisure and hospitality added 42,000 jobs, Professional, scientific, and technical services added 32,000, and social assistance employment rose by 15,000.
- In May, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by $0.14 to $34.91.
- The average workweek for all private employees remained at 34.3 hours in May.
- The labor force participation rate fell to 62.5% and is 0.9% below its February 2020 level.
- In May, the unemployed population was rose to 6.649 million but job openings fell to 8.1 million in April.