The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its employment / unemployment report for May on June 2nd 2023.
Unemployment up Slightly
- Adjusted U-3 was 3.7% up from 3.4%
- Unadjusted U-3 was 3.4% up from 3.1%
- Unadjusted U-6 was 6.4% Up from 6.1%
- Labor Force Participation unchanged at 62.6%
- Unadjusted Employment rose from 155.386 to 156.303 million
According to the Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:
“Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 339,000 in May, and the unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage point to 3.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
Job gains occurred in professional and business services, government, health care, construction, transportation and warehousing, and social assistance.”
You can read the full BLS report here.
As usual, they are talking about “Seasonally Adjusted Jobs”.
Looking at the Establishment Survey report, we see…
Originally the BLS reported employment of 155.337 million for April which they adjusted to 155.386 million. So they added 49,000 jobs for April. They are reporting 156.306 million jobs for May which is actually an increase of 969,000 jobs based on their original estimates or an increase of 920,000 based on their updated numbers.
Current Employment Rate Chart
Adjusted Unemployment is slightly above the pre-COVID 2019 cyclical lows of 3.5%. We’ve been saying that “typically, March or April has one of the lowest unemployment rates for the year, so we could see a slight increase from here without an actual deterioration of the labor market.” And that is precisely what is happening. Current levels are within the “Green Zone”.
