U.S. Job Growth Slows to 390,000 in May, Jobless Rate Steady at 3.6%

Brian Turner
03 Jun, 2022
New York City

The U.S. employers added 390,000 positions in May, according to the latest data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Civilian labor force in May increased to 164,376,000, an increase of 3.5 million or 2.4% from a year ago. 

Most economists were looking for job additions between 325,000 and 335,000, according to an informal survey conducted by Ticker.com.  

The unemployment rate held at 3.6% for the third month in a row and the number of unemployed remained unchanged at 6.0 million. 

The household survey showed the unemployment rate was the lowest amongst Asians with a jobless rate of 2.4% and was highest among teenagers with 10.4%. 

Unemployment rate among Blacks was 6.2%, Whites was 2.4%, and Hispanics was 4.2%.   

The household survey measures the labor force status by demographics and the establishment survey measures non-farm employment, hours, and earnings by industries. 

Labor market has still not fully healed as long term unemployed, those looking for jobs six months or longer, remained 235,000 above the February 2020 level. 

Both the labor force participation rate, at 62.3%, and the employment- population ratio, at 60.1 percent, were little changed over the month. 

Both measures are 1.1 percentage points below their February 2020 levels.

The number of people teleworking declined to 7.4% in May from 7.7% in April and about 1.8 million people said they had not been able to work before their employer closed or lost business because of the pandemic. 

Despite the job gains for months, the BLS household survey showed that labor market has not yet fully recovered from the job losses during the pandemic. 

Total nonfarm employment is down by 822,000, or 0.5%, from its pre-pandemic level in February 2020.

Leisure and hospitality added 84,000 positions, professional business services increased 75,000, and transportation and warehousing gained 47,000 jobs and led job gains in the month. 

However, retailers cut 61,000 positions as many businesses struggled with overstaffing and inventory challenges but employment level is above its February level by 159,000.  

Average hourly earnings increased 0.3% from April to $31.50 and gained 5.2% from a year ago. 

The bureau also lowered its estimate of job gains in March by 30,000 to 398,000 and revised higher 8,000 in April to 436,000.  

With these changes employment in March and April is 22,000 lower than previously reported.