May 2017 Unemployment Rate, Jobs

The May 2017 Jobs Report was released by the government's Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning, June 2. This is a fairly mediocre report, and it is unclear if it shows the beginning of a weakness in the job market, or whether it just shows an anomaly.

May 2017 Job Report Highlights: 

• The economy added 138,000 jobs, a below average number of new jobs, and the unemployment rate fell slightly by 0.1% to 4.3% due to people leaving the labor force.
• Over the past 3 months, job gains have averaged 121,000 per month.  Over the past 12 months, job gains have averaged 181,000 per month.
• The number of employed people DECREASED by 233,000. The number of unemployed people DECREASED by 195,000 as 429,000 people left the labor force, meaning that they either stopped working or stopped looking for work.  That is a NET number.
• 367,000 FEWER people are working full-time and 133,000 MORE  people were working part-time in May.
• There were 147,000 MORE private sector jobs, and 9,000 FEWER government jobs in May.  
• The alternate unemployment rate (U-6) declined to 8.4% this month.  A year ago the U-6 rate was 9.7%.  
• The Labor Force participation rate has been VERY stable since 2014, varying between 62.4% and 63%.  It was 62.7% in May, declining 0.2% since April, but rising 0.1%  over the past year.
• Remember that there is NO ideal labor force size, and most of the overall decrease in the labor force participation RATE over the last few years has been due to Baby Boomers retiring in great numbers.

From the BLS report: 

"The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for March was revised down from +79,000 to +50,000, and the change for April was revised down from +211,000 to +174,000. With these revisions, employment gains in March and April combined were 66,000 less than previously reported. Monthly revisions result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors. Over the past 3 months, job gains have averaged 121,000 per month."

May 2017 reports: (Notation on the links will be changed to "UPDATED for May" when the updated reports become available later today or over the weekend.  Not all reports are updated every month.)

• What Was the Unemployment Rate When Obama Took Office?  When Trump took office? (compared to today)?  
• How Many Jobs Created or Lost Under Trump? - Full-time vs. Part-time? -  
• Democrats rock at full-time job creation! - 
• How Many Jobs Have Been Created in 2017? - 
• Jobs Lost/Gained Year by Year Since 1999 - 
• 93 Million People Not in the Labor Force? Who are those people?  Latest update is for April 2015

More highlights and reports will continue to be posted here over the coming days and weeks.  Please check back!