U.S. gains 223K jobs
Unemployment at 18-year low of 3.8 pct
U.S. employers extended a streak of solid hiring in May, adding 223,000 jobs and helping lower the unemployment rate to an 18-year low of 3.8 per cent from 3.9 per cent in April.
Average hourly pay rose 2.7 per cent from a year earlier, a slightly faster annual rate than in April, the Labor Department reported Friday. But pay growth remains below levels that are typical when the unemployment rate is this low.
Still, the report shows that the nearly 9-year old economic expansion - the second-longest on record - remains on track. Employers appear to be shrugging off recent concerns about global trade disputes.
Roughly an hour before the employment data was released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, President Donald Trump appeared to hint on Twitter that a strong jobs report was coming. “Looking forward
to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning,” he tweeted.
The president is normally briefed on the monthly jobs report the day before it is publicly released, and he and other administration officials are not supposed to comment on it beforehand.
Friday’s report showed that hiring in the United States is benefiting a wider range of
Americans: The unemployment rate for high school graduates reached 3.9 per cent, a 17year low. For black Americans, it hit a record low of 5.9 per cent.
“The economy and labour market appear to be firing on all cylinders, with all sectors showing strength,” said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics.
With the jobless rate so low, employers have complained for months about the difficulty of finding workers to fill jobs. The number of open positions reached a record high in March. Friday’s report suggests that some companies are making extra efforts to find people.
For example, the number of part-time workers who would prefer full-time jobs declined slightly and is down 6 per cent from a year ago. That may mean that businesses are converting some part-timers to full-time work. Companies are also hiring the long-term unemployed those who have been out of work for six months or longer.
Their ranks have fallen by nearly one-third in the past year. That’s important because economists worry that people who are out of work for long periods can see their skills erode. Yet employers now seem more willing to hire them.
The job gains in May were broad-based: Professional and business services, which includes higher-paying fields such as accounting and engineering, added 31,000 jobs.
Health care, a consistent job engine for the entire recovery, gained nearly 32,000.