The Bureau of Labored Statistics does its usual murky job on the employment report released to day covering May. The Bureau is having more than its usual share of issues due to layoffs and quits. That is unfortunate because these reports are very important and widely watched. And BLS is at least consistent in the new Administration; it keeps revising prior reports lower. In this case April was revised down by 30,000 jobs and March by 65,000. So the May number of new jobs, 139,000, while better than the consensus expectations, will likely be revised down. So far for the year, the jobs market is not exactly looking robust.
The unemployment percent was unchanged at 4.2%. The labor force number declined, even more slackers not working at all. And the large gap between the business survey and household survey has returned, with the household survey showing a big decline in workers. And we also saw the return of the large drop in full-time workers and small increase in part-time ones. Health care and leisure/hospitality showed the biggest gains in jobs and the federal government continues to lose employees. (BLS Release)
On a semi-related note, Minnesota had the second highest number of new unemployment claims last week, over 3000, which on a percent of working population basis is quite high. But don’t worry, everything is just great in Fat Timmy’s state.
