The U.S. non-farm payroll rose by 280K in May – higher than market expectations. The ADP report estimated an increase of only 201K jobs and the market expectations were at 222K, for May. Based on the U.S. employment report, the main sectors that expanded their jobs were professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and health care. There was another drop in jobs in the mining sector. The rate of unemployment remained nearly unchanged at 5.5%. The U.S. dollar bounced back against the Euro, and gold and silver took another hit.
The chart below shows the revised figures of the added number of non-farm employees in the labor market in past years (up to May 2014). The total non-farm payroll in April and March was revised up by a total of 32K than previously reported. This revision comes after the April report initially showed a gain of 223K jobs. So, the jobs report for April was slightly better than previously estimated.
In May, the rate of U.S. unemployment edged up to 5.5%. This unemployment rate is 0.8 percent points below the rate recorded in May 2014.
Moreover, the number of unemployed persons (8.674 million) rose by 125K in May compared to the preceding month. A closer look reveals that the civilian labor force grew again by 397K. So there was a rise in number of people participating in the labor force and in the number of unemployed – this is a good trend for the labor market; the participation rate inched up again to 62.9%.
Finally, wages also rose – the hourly earnings increased to $24.96 per hour – an 8 cents gain, month over month; wages are 2.3% higher than the same month back in 2014. If wages keep picking up, this could indicate the much needed improvement in the labor market.
The news about the stronger than expected gain in jobs didn’t pull up the U.S. stocks but the USD rallied against leading currencies. Gold and silver took another hit and dropped on Friday.
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