The US economy continues to produce more jobs despite being close to full employment. The unemployment rate has remained at or under 4% since April 2018 while annual increases in hourly pay have remained above 3% for eight consecutive months. However, the latest monthly increase was less than expected and hourly pay rates slowed.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US economy created 75,000 jobs in the non-farm sector in May, considerably less than April’s revised increase of 224,000 and less than half of the 190,000 additional positions expected by economists. The unemployment rate remained steady at 3.6% despite an increase in the total number of unemployed by 64,000 to 5.888 million while the total number of people employed in both the farm and non-farm sectors increased by 113,000 to 156.758 million.