America’s job-creation engine is sputtering a bit, a couple of job reports for May indicate. The latest report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that total nonfarm payroll employment in the U.S. increased by 139,000 for the month, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.2 percent. May’s gain is roughly in line with the average monthly gain of 149,000 over the prior 12 months, the bureau noted.
As for specific sectors within the economy, employment continued to trend up in health care (+62,000 jobs), leisure and hospitality (+48,000), and social assistance (+16,000). Employment in the retail sector fell modestly, losing 6500 positions.
On the other side of the coin, the federal government continued to lose jobs in May (-22,000) and is down by 59,000 since January. Much of that decline is due to Elon Musk’s now-foundering Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cost-cutting efforts. In its report on the May numbers, USA Today noted that while DOGE has cut as many as 120,000 federal jobs, many of those workers have been placed on administrative leave, leaving them on U.S. payrolls pending court cases, according to a report from Morgan Stanley.
The bureau’s numbers come on the heels of payroll-processor ADP’s latest private sector job-creation gauge, which slowed to a near standstill in May, amidst signs of a weakening labor market.
The ADP data showed such payrolls increased just 37,000 for the month, below the downwardly revised 60,000 for April, making it was the lowest monthly job gain from the ADP count since March 2023.
“After a strong start to the year, hiring is losing momentum,” ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson said in a news release.
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