Report: U.S. Adds 75,000 Jobs in May 2019



According to the latest numbers released by the U.S. Department of Labor, while unemployment remained at 3.6%, the U.S. added only 75,000 new nonfarm payroll jobs in May 2019.

Employment continued to trend up in professional and business services and in health care, while construction employment changed little in May (+4,000), following an increase of 30,000 in April.

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (3.3%), adult women (3.2%), teenagers (12.7%), Whites (3.3%), Blacks (6.2%), Asians (2.5%), and Hispanics (4.2%) showed little or no change in May. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

In May, the number of persons unemployed less than 5 weeks increased by 243,000 to 2.1 million, following a decline in April. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more), at 1.3 million, changed little over the month and accounted for 22.4% of the unemployed. (See table A-12.)

Both the labor force participation rate, at 62.8%, and the employment-population ratio, at 60.6%, were unchanged in May.

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) declined by 299,000 in May to 4.4 million. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs. Over the past 12 months, the number of involuntary part-time workers has declined by 565,000.

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for March was revised down from +189,000 to +153,000, and the change for April was revised down from +263,000 to +224,000. With these revisions, employment gains in March and April combined were 75,000 less than previously reported.


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