May was a disappointing month for job growth in the United States. The Department of Labor released its monthly job reports which fell short of expectations.
78,000 jobs were added, less than half of the expected 185,000 and much less than the 274,000 jobs added in April. The unemployment rate didn’t change, staying at 5.1%.
“The economy is slowing; it’s not soft — there’s a difference,” said Holland, PA Commerce Bank chief economist Joel Naroff. “It’s like the economy was going 100 mph; now it’s probably gotten down to 60 mph. That’s a nice, decent speed, probably not at the speed limit in most places, but not 25 mph.” According to AP,
Workers’ average hourly earnings rose to $16.03 in May. While that’s 2.6 percent higher than last May, wage growth is not keeping up with inflation, economists said.
The average time the unemployed spent searching for work in May was 18.8 weeks, an improvement from the average of 19.6 weeks the previous month.
The largest amount of growth took place in the educational and healthcare services industry, which added about 40,000 jobs. The manufacturing sector on the other hand lost 7,000 jobs. Long-term unemployment, which includes people unemployed longer than 27 weeks, remained unchanged.
As John Stith of Murdok points out, a problem that isn’t helping anything is that inflation has climbed higher than salaries. Wages increased 0.2% and inflation climbed 0.5%.
John reports: “The one area of note is the construction industry. The housing market is booming right now. Construction jobs climbed by 2,000. Interest rates still remain low and people are buying goods and services but for how long? With inflation climbing and oil prices skyrocketing with no end in sight where do things go from here?”
That is the question. I suppose only time will tell.
Chris is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.