The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its May 2024 Report, so let’s take a look at how employment fared over the last month.
The great news is:
- In May, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 272,000 people, higher than the average monthly gain over the past year.
- Leisure and hospitality, government, health chare, and professional, scientific, and technical services saw the largest share of new jobs in May.
- In May, average hourly earnings for private non-farm payroll jobs increased by 0.4%, or 14 cents, to $34.91. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 4.1%.
The good news is:
- The number of people not in the labor force who currently want a job increased to 5.7 million people. Keep in mind, these 5.7 million people were not counted as unemployed because they were unavailable to take a job or were not actively looking for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.
- The average work week for private non-farm payroll employees remained at 34.3 hours in May.
The bad news is:
- In May, the unemployment rate increased slightly to 4% or 6.6 million people.
- The number of long-term unemployed, people without a job for 27 weeks or more, increased slightly to 1.4 million people, accounting for 20.7% of total unemployed persons.
- The number of discouraged workers who believed there were no jobs available to them increased by 100,000 to 462,000 people.
- There was a small decrease in the labor force participation rate, at 62.5%, which has shown little change over the past year.