Solid Jobs Report: Labor Force +397K, Establishment +280K Jobs, Employment +272K, Unemployment +125K, Unemployment Rate +0.1%

Initial Reaction

Today's job report (for May) showed good numbers for the labor force, establishment jobs, and household employment. In contrast to April, this month's report was not marred by huge growth in part-time employment.

Household survey employment rose by 272,000 while unemployment rose by 125,000. That means more people actively seek jobs. They are back in the labor force. As a result, the unemployment rate rose by 0.1% to 5.5%.

Let's take a look at all the key numbers.

BLS Jobs Statistics at a Glance

• Nonfarm Payroll: +280,000 - Establishment Survey
• Employment: +272,000 - Household Survey
• Unemployment: +125,000 - Household Survey
• Involuntary Part-Time Work: +72,000 - Household Survey
• Voluntary Part-Time Work: -95,000 - Household Survey
• Baseline Unemployment Rate: +0.1 to 5.5% - Household Survey
• U-6 unemployment: +0.0 to 10.8% - Household Survey
• Civilian Non-institutional Population: +189,000
• Civilian Labor Force: +397,000 - Household Survey
• Not in Labor Force: -208,000 - Household Survey
• Participation Rate: +0.1 to 62.9 - Household Survey

March 2015 Employment Report

Please consider the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Current Employment Report.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 280,000 in May, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 5.5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and health care. Mining employment continued to decline.

Unemployment Rate - Seasonally Adjusted



Nonfarm Employment



Click on Any Chart in this Report to See a Sharper Image

Nonfarm Employment Change from Previous Month by Job Type



Hours and Wages

Average weekly hours of all private employees was flat at 34.5 hours. Average weekly hours of all private service-providing employees was flat at 33.4 hours.

Average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory private workers rose $0.06 at $20.97. Average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory private service-providing employees rose $0.06 at $20.77.

For discussion of income distribution, please see What's "Really" Behind Gross Inequalities In Income Distribution?

Birth Death Model

Starting January 2014, I dropped the Birth/Death Model charts from this report. For those who follow the numbers, I retain this caution: Do not subtract the reported Birth-Death number from the reported headline number. That approach is statistically invalid. Should anything interesting arise in the Birth/Death numbers, I will add the charts back.

Table 15 BLS Alternate Measures of Unemployment



click on chart for sharper image

Table A-15 is where one can find a better approximation of what the unemployment rate really is.

Notice I said "better" approximation not to be confused with "good" approximation.

The official unemployment rate is 5.5%. However, if you start counting all the people who want a job but gave up, all the people with part-time jobs that want a full-time job, all the people who dropped off the unemployment rolls because their unemployment benefits ran out, etc., you get a closer picture of what the unemployment rate is. That number is in the last row labeled U-6.

U-6 is much higher at 10.8%. Both numbers would be way higher still, were it not for millions dropping out of the labor force over the past few years.

Some of those dropping out of the labor force retired because they wanted to retire. The rest is disability fraud, forced retirement, discouraged workers, and kids moving back home because they cannot find a job.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com