In May, the year-over-year employment change was 4.06 million jobs.
Prime (25 to 54 Years Old) Participation
Since the overall participation rate is impacted by both cyclical (recession) and demographic (aging population, younger people staying in school) reasons, here is the employment-population ratio for the key working age group: 25 to 54 years old.
The 25 to 54 participation rate was increased in May to 83.4% from 83.3% in April, and the 25 to 54 employment population ratio decreased to 80.7% from 80.8% the previous month.
Average Hourly Wages
The graph shows the nominal year-over-year change in “Average Hourly Earnings” for all private employees from the Current Employment Statistics (CES).
Wage growth has trended down after peaking at 5.9% YoY in March 2022 and was at 4.3% YoY in May.
From the BLS report:
“The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons, at 3.7 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.“
The number of persons working part time for economic reasons decreased in April to 3.739 million from 3.903 million in April. This is below pre-recession levels.
These workers are included in the alternate measure of labor underutilization (U-6) that increased to 6.7% from 6.6% in the previous month. This is down from the record high in April 22.9% and up slightly from the lowest level on record (seasonally adjusted) in December 2022 (6.5%). (This series started in 1994). This measure is below the level in February 2020 (pre-pandemic).
Unemployed over 26 Weeks
This graph shows the number of workers unemployed for 27 weeks or more.
According to the BLS, there are 1.188 million workers who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks and still want a job, up from 1.156 million the previous month.
This is at pre-pandemic levels.
Summary:
The headline monthly jobs number was well above expectations, and employment for the previous two months was revised up by 93,000, combined.