June 4, 2021

May 2021 Jobs Report

Unemployment Rate: 5.8 percent

Jobs Created: 559,000

Employment and Unemployment          

  1. The Department of Labor reported the unemployment rate decreased by 0.3 percentage point to 5.8% in May.
  2. Nonfarm jobs increased by 559,000 in May, with sizeable job gains in the leisure and hospitality industry.

  3. In March and April, job gains were higher than first reported. The department revised the change in nonfarm jobs for those months up by a combined 27,000 jobs.     

  4. The U-6 unemployment rate, a broader measure that includes part-time and discouraged workers, ticked down 0.2 percentage point to 10.2% in May.

Labor Force Participation

  1. The labor force participation rate, the share of people employed or looking for work, edged down 0.1 percentage point to 61.6%. It remains 1.7 percentage points lower than the level in February 2020.

Wages

  1. In May, average hourly earnings for all employees in private nonfarm jobs increased by $0.15 to $30.33.

Issue Tag: Labor