May 2015 employment: new jobs in hospitality, but mining industry takes another hit

release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. saw an increase of 280,000 jobs in May, though the rate of unemployment remained steady at 5.5 percent. The mining industry continued to see a decline in available jobs, though available jobs in professional and business services increased, as did positions within the health care and hospitality industries. Approximately 8.7 million people remain unemployed; this is unchanged from the previous few months. Of the new jobs available, 63,000 were in professional and business services. Just under a third of the jobs (20,000) were in temporary help services, though computer systems design services and technical consulting both saw decent leaps, at 10,000 jobs and 7,000 jobs respectively. The leisure and hospitality industries also saw a surge in new jobs — to the tune of 57,000 jobs — after remaining stagnant over the previous few months. The bulk of the new positions (29,000) were created in the arts, recreation and entertainment field; eating and drinking establishments saw little change from the previous few months. Health care also saw plenty of new positions, with 47,000 new jobs, most of which were in home health care and outpatient care, under the umbrella of ambulatory care services. There were also 31,000 new jobs in retail trade. While construction, transportation and financial activities also saw small gains, the manufacturing, information, government and trade sectors held steady at last month’s numbers. Unfortunately the mining industry continued to lose jobs in May; this marks the fifth month in a row mining jobs have decreased. Approximately 17,000 jobs in mining support activities were eliminated, resulting in a total loss of 68,000 jobs thus far in 2015.]]>