There was solid job growth in May as the unemployment rate fell to an 18-year low, sitting at 3.8 percent, matching that of April 2000 as the lowest since 1969. Meanwhile, U.S. non-farm payrolls increased to a seasonally adjusted 223,000 last month, with a 2.7 percent year-over-year increase in wages.
Black unemployment fell sharply to 5.9 percent, beating out the 6.6 percent record low that was set in April, according to the Washington Examiner. As well, the unemployment rate among Hispanic workers hit a record low in April, at 4.8 percent, but it rose slightly to 4.9 percent in May.
The Wall Street Journal reports that economists originally expected 190,000 new jobs for May and a slightly higher unemployment rate of 3.9 percent. Domestic employers have added to the payroll numbers for 92 straight months – the longest continuous jobs expansion run on record.
Sounding optimistic, President Donald Trump tweeted before the jobs announcement, “Looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning.”
With revisions for the previous months, March saw 155,000 jobs added, and April with 159,000 – a net uptick of 15,000. Through the first five months of the year, there have been an average of 207,000 workers added to U.S. payrolls, outpacing 2017’s monthly average of 182,000.
Economists expected hiring to plateau in the past few months as the labor market tightens and the U.S. reaches near full employment. A tighter labor market should also produce better wage growth, but gains have increased minimally as the market still shows hiring to be done.
Furthermore, the month of May showed the amount of adults working or actively looking for employment decreased to 62.7 percent, though the share of jobs increase to 60.4 percent. The labor-force participation rate is up from the most recent low in 2015, but still down from the 1970s when women began entering the workforce in greater numbers.
Employers are beginning to seek new ways to attract workers as the labor market starts to shrink. Timberline Total Solutions, an Omaha, Nebraska-based call center, said they will increase its flexibility for when employees can work.
Vice President of Operation Mitch Kampbell said, “We’ve gotten a lot of feedback that people need the flexibility to take a day off, or leave early to help their son with homework.” As a company that is open 12 hours a day, seven days a week, they will begin allowing employees to have opportunity to make up hours when it best fits their schedule.
Kampbell said flexibility helps attract potential employees for, “$11.50- to $14-an-hour jobs, who might otherwise seek to work in retail or food service.” He said his company typically holds starting wages steady, but offers up to a $2-an-hour bonus for workers who work 85 percent of their hours during the company’s busiest periods.
Nevertheless, the central bank‘s U-6 number, the broad measure of unemployment and underemployment, fell to 7.6 percent from 7.8 percent the prior month. The number of Americans stuck in part-time jobs, or too discouraged to look for work, remains somewhat elevated compared with the last time unemployment was similarly low. In December 2000, U-6 was 6.9 percent.
In all, the number of employed Americans, currently at 155,474,000, is the ninth record broken, in fact, since President Trump took office.
