May 2018 Jobs Report

Unemployment Rate: 3.8 percent

Jobs Created: 223,000

Employment and Unemployment

1. The Department of Labor reported that the unemployment rate in May fell to 3.8 percent, down 0.1 percentage points from the previous month.

2. For May, the jobs report shows an increase of 223,000 nonfarm jobs. Sectors with job gains include retail trade (31,000), health care (29,000), construction (25,000), and manufacturing (18,000).

3. The unemployment rate for African-Americans fell to 5.9 percent, the lowest on record.

4. The U.S. has created 1,037,000 new jobs since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act became law and 3,577,000 new jobs since President Trump was elected in November 2016.

5. U-6 rate, which measures both unemployed and underemployed workers, decreased to 7.6 percent. It is 0.8 percentage points lower than May of last year.

6. By the U-6 measure, 12.5 million Americans are unemployed. These are people who are unemployed (6.1 million), want work but have not looked for a job recently (1.5 million), or are working part time because they cannot find full-time employment (4.9 million).

7. The number of long-term unemployed, those unemployed for 27 weeks or more, was 1.2 million, about 104,000 less than in April. They account for 19.4 percent of the unemployed.

Labor Force Participation

1. The labor force participation rate is 62.7 percent, down 0.1 percentage points from April and below the pre-recession rate of 66 percent.

Wages

1. In May, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 8 cents to $26.92. It is a 71-cent, or 2.7 percent, gain from a year ago.