The month of May has shown some growth in employment, which has increased by 280,000. While the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 5.5%, according to a press release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Job gains occurred in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and health care. Mining employment also continued to decline.

Employer data

Professional and business services added 63,000 jobs in May and 671,000 jobs over the year. Employment also increased in computer systems design and related services. Employment continued to trend up in temporary help services, in management and technical consulting services, and in architectural and engineering services.

Employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 57,000 in May, following little change in the prior 2 months. Employment edged up in arts, entertainment, and recreation. While food services and drinking places has shown little net change over the past 3 months.

Health care added 47,000 jobs in May. Within the industry, employment in ambulatory care services (which includes home health care services and outpatient care centers) rose by 28,000. Hospitals added 16,000 jobs over the month. Over the past year, health care has added 408,000 jobs.

Employment in retail trade edged up over the prior 12 months, the industry had added an average of 24,000 jobs per month. Within retail trade, automobile dealers added 8,000 jobs.

Construction employment continued to trend up over the month and has increased by 273,000 over the past year. Transportation and warehousing continued on an upward trend, with truck transportation adding 9,000 jobs over the month. Financial activities also grew over the past 12 months, the industry has added 160,000 jobs, with about half of the gain in insurance carriers and related activities.

Employment in mining fell for the fifth month in a row, with a decline of 17,000 in May. The loss was in support activities for mining. Employment in mining has decreased by 68,000 thus far this year, after increasing by 41,000 in 2014. Employment in other major industries, including manufacturing, wholesale trade, information, and government, showed little change over the month.

Employee data

In May, both the unemployment rate (5.5%) and the number of unemployed persons (8.7 million) were essentially unchanged. Both measures have shown little movement since February. Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (5%), adult women (5%), teenagers (17.9%), whites (4.7%), blacks (10.2%), Asians (4.1%), and Hispanics (6.7%) showed little or no change in May.

The number of persons unemployed for less than 5 weeks decreased by 311,000 to 2.4 million in May, following an increase in April. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) held at 2.5 million in May and accounted for 28.6% of the unemployed. Over the past 12 months, the number of long-term unemployed is down by 849,000.

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was about unchanged at 6.7 million in May and has shown little movement in recent months. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

Wage and hour data

In May, average hourly earnings for all employees rose by 8 cents to $24.96. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.3%. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 6 cents to $20.97 in May.

The average workweek for all employees remained at 34.5 hours. The manufacturing workweek was unchanged at 40.7 hours, and factory overtime remained at 3.3 hours. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees edged up by 0.1 hour to 33.7 hours.

For more information on the May reporting, see the full BLS press release.