May Employment Report: 175,000 Jobs, 7.6% Unemployment Rate

From the BLS:

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 175,000 in May, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 7.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. ...
...
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for March was revised from +138,000 to +142,000, and the change for April was revised from +165,000 to +149,000. With these revisions, employment gains in March and April combined were 12,000 less than previously reported.

The headline number was slightly above expectations of 167,000 payroll jobs added.  Employment for March and April combined was revised slightly lower.

Click on graph for larger image.

NOTE: This graph is ex-Census meaning the impact of the decennial Census temporary hires and layoffs is removed to show the underlying payroll changes.

The second graph shows the unemployment rate.

The unemployment rate increased to 7.6% in May from 7.5% in April.

The unemployment rate is from the household report and the household report showed a sharp increase in employment, and that meant a lower unemployment rate.


The third graph shows the employment population ratio and the participation rate.

The Labor Force Participation Rate was increased to 63.4% in May (blue line) from 63.3% in April. This is the percentage of the working age population in the labor force. 

The participation rate is well below the 66% to 67% rate that was normal over the last 20 years, although a significant portion of the recent decline is due to demographics.


The Employment-Population ratio was unchanged at 58.6% in May (black line). I'll post the 25 to 54 age group employment-population ratio graph later.


The fourth graph shows the job losses from the start of the employment recession, in percentage terms, compared to previous post WWII recessions. The dotted line is ex-Census hiring.

This shows the depth of the recent employment recession - worse than any other post-war recession - and the relatively slow recovery due to the lingering effects of the housing bust and financial crisis.

This was at expectations - of course expectations are fairly low.  I'll have much more later ...