May Jobs Report—An Unexpected Increase

By Tom Burnett CFA
On June 5, 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the employment conditions for May. In a surprising development, employment actually rose by 2.5 million from the prior month. The unemployment rate declined from 14.7% in April to 13.3% in May. The March and April figures were also revised downward by a total of 642,000. At the end of May, the total employment number was 137.2 million, down from 155.7 million in March, before the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the measures implemented to control it. A year ago, the total employment figure was 156.8 million. It now appears that the unemployment crisis nay have bottomed out in April.
The next BLS report on the employment situation for June will be issued on July 2.
Tom Burnett CFA is Director of Research