Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 272,000 in May, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.0 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment continued to trend up in several industries, led by health care; government; leisure and hospitality; and
professional, scientific, and technical services. This news release presents statistics from two monthly surveys. The household survey measures labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic characteristics. The establishment survey measures nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings by industry. For more information about the concepts and statistical methodology used in these two surveys, see the Technical Note. Household Survey Data – Both the unemployment rate, at 4.0 percent, and the number of unemployed people, at 6.6 million, changed little in May. A year earlier, the jobless rate was 3.7 percent, and the number of
unemployed people was 6.1 million. Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (3.8 percent), adult women (3.4 percent), teenagers (12.3 percent), Whites (3.5 percent), Blacks (6.1 percent), Asians (3.1 percent), and Hispanics (5.0 percent) showed little or no change in May. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more), at 1.4 million, changed little in May. The long-term unemployed accounted for 20.7 percent of all unemployed
people. Both the labor force participation rate, at 62.5 percent, and the employment-population ratio, at 60.1 percent, were little changed in May. These measures showed little change over the year. The number of people employed part time for economic reasons, at 4.4 million, changed little in May. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs. In May, the number of people not in the labor force who currently want a job, at 5.7 million, was little changed. These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work during the 4 weeks preceding the survey or were unavailable to take a job. Among those not in the labor force who wanted a job, the number of people marginally attached to the labor force, at 1.5 million, was little changed in May. These individuals wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months but had not looked for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. The number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, edged up to 462,000 over the month.
