The US Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) is reporting a marginal increase in the total nonfarm payroll employment of 272,000 in May.

However, the unemployment remains unchanged at 4.0 per cent. Job gains continued to trend up in several industries, led by health care, government, leisure and hospitality, professional, scientific, and technical services. The BLS reports that these findings are based on two monthly surveys.

They are the household survey, which assesses labour force status, including unemployment by demographic characteristics, and the establishment survey, which measures nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings by industry.

Household survey data

In May, the unemployment rate remained steady at 4.0 per cent, with 6.6 million unemployed individuals, compared to 3.7 per cent and 6.1 million a year earlier. Unemployment rates among major worker groups, including adult men (3.8 per cent), adult women (3.4 per cent), teenagers (12.3 per cent), Whites (3.5 per cent), Blacks (6.1 per cent), Asians (3.1 per cent), and Hispanics (5.0 per cent), showed little change. 

The number of long-term unemployed remained at 1.4 million, making up 20.7 per cent of the unemployed. Both the labour force participation rate (62.5 per cent) and the employment-population ratio (60.1 per cent) also showed minimal change.

In May, the number of people employed part-time for economic reasons remained at 4.4 million, as they were unable to find full-time work or had their hours reduced. Additionally, 5.7 million people not in the labour force but wanting a job saw little change, as they were not actively seeking work in the past 4 weeks or were unavailable.

Among these, 1.5 million were marginally attached to the labour force, having sought employment in the past 12 months but not in the last four weeks. The number of discouraged workers, those who believed no jobs were available for them, slightly increased to 462,000.

Establishment survey data

In May, total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 272,000, surpassing the average monthly gain of 232,000 over the past year. Employment increases were led by health care (+68,000), government (+43,000), leisure and hospitality (+42,000), and professional, scientific, and technical services (+32,000).

Notable gains within these sectors included ambulatory health care services (+43,000), food services and drinking places (+25,000), and management, scientific, and technical consulting services (+14,000). Social assistance and retail trade also saw growth, while industries such as mining, construction, and manufacturing showed little change.

In May, average hourly earnings for all private nonfarm payroll employees increased by 14 cents (0.4 per cent) to $34.91, reflecting a 4.1 per cent rise over the past year. Earnings for private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees also rose by 14 cents (0.5 per cent) to $29.99. 

The average workweek for all private nonfarm employees remained steady at 34.3 hours with manufacturing unchanged at 40.1 hours and a slight increase in overtime to 3.0 hours. The workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees edged up by 0.1 hours to 33.8 hours.