May 2016 employment: US adds 38,000 jobs

The Employment Situation’ news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. economy added just 38,000 jobs in May while the unemployment rate declined 0.3% to 4.7% (resulting in 7.4 million unemployed persons). Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (4.3 percent),  adult women (4.2 percent), Whites (4.1 percent), and Hispanics (5.6 percent)  declined in May. The rates for teenagers (16.0 percent), Blacks (8.2 percent), and  Asians (4.1 percent) showed little or no change.  Among the marginally attached, there were 538,000 discouraged workers in May, essentially unchanged from a year earlier. The May jobs report found that employment gains occurred in health care and professional and business services while industry sectors such mining, information, and manufacturing lost jobs. Employment in other major industries, including construction, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, financial activities, leisure and  hospitality, and government, changed little over the month. The change in employment for March was revised from 208,000 jobs added to 186,000 jobs added and the change for April was revised from 160,000 jobs added to 123,000 jobs added. With these revisions, employment gains in March and April were 59,000 jobs less than previously reported.]]>