Unemployment Rate Falls to 13.3%, Economy Adds 2.5 Million Jobs in May

June 5, 2020 by Dan McCue
Unemployment Rate Falls to 13.3%, Economy Adds 2.5 Million Jobs in May
A sign "Now Hiring" rests in a window as a man walks out of the Corner Market, Thursday, May 28, 2020, in Lyndhurst, Ohio. The state says about 1.3 million Ohioans have filed unemployment claims in the past 10 weeks as Ohio's stay-at-home order depressed the economy and led to widespread layoffs. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services says about 42,000 people filed claims for the week ending May 23. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

WASHINGTON – U.S. employers added 2.5 million jobs in May as businesses began to reopen following months of closures ordered at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic. The uptick in hiring dropped the unemployment rate to 13.3%, the Labor Department said Friday.

Many economists had predicted a loss of an additional eight million jobs in May and an unemployment rate of 19% or higher.

The unexpected job gain suggests that businesses have quickly been recalling workers as states have reopened their economies.

Other indicators show that the job market meltdown triggered by the coronavirus has bottomed out.

The number of people applying for unemployment benefits has declined for nine straight weeks. And the total number of people receiving such aid has essentially leveled off.

The overall job cuts have widened economic disparities that have disproportionately hurt minorities and lower-educated workers.

Though the unemployment rate for white Americans was 12.4% May, it was 17.6% for Hispanics and 16.8% for African-Americans, the department said

Even with the surprising gains in May, it may take months for all those who lost work in March and April to find jobs. Some economists forecast the rate could remain in double-digits through the November elections and into next year.

The increase in employment was across most industries, with the most notable exception being the government. The number of jobs in government dropped by 585,000 in May after a 963,000 drop in April. The decline in tax revenue in state and local governments is forcing them to shed workers.

Gordon Gray, of the American Action Network, a nonprofit, conservative issue advocacy group based in Washington, said the disparity between Friday’s numbers and expectations is largely due to the bottom of the pandemic-caused slowdown having occurred somewhat  sooner than expected.

Gray noted that average hourly earnings fell by 29 cents, but still reflecting a substantial gain – 6.95 percent for the year. “Average hourly earnings for production and non-supervisory workers declined by 14 cents for a 6.93 percent gain over the year,” in an email. “These substantial increases continue to reflect the compositional effects of the substantial loss of lower-paid workers.”

 The Conference Board, a think tank based in New York, said based on Friday’s figures, the number of jobs is likely to sharply grow further in the next 2-3 months as states continue to relax social distancing restrictions. 

“The big question is how willing consumers will be to spend on consumption categories that pose a contagion risk,” the think tank said. “They will probably spend less on categories that both pose a high contagion risk and could more easily be avoided for a while, such as entertainment and flights. A full recovery in employment is unlikely to occur in the next 12 months.”

A+
a-
  • Coronavirus
  • Employment
  • Labor Department
  • rebound
  • In The News

    Health

    Voting

    Employment

    Cuts Have Eliminated More Than a Dozen US Government Health-Tracking Programs

    NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s motto is “ Make America Healthy Again,” but government cuts... Read More

    NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s motto is “ Make America Healthy Again,” but government cuts could make it harder to know if that's happening. More than a dozen data-gathering programs that track deaths and disease appear to have been eliminated in... Read More

    FDA Reverses Course on Telework After Layoffs and Resignations Threaten Basic Operations

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Weeks after ordering Food and Drug Administration employees back into the office, the agency is reversing course, allowing some... Read More

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Weeks after ordering Food and Drug Administration employees back into the office, the agency is reversing course, allowing some of its most prized staffers to work remotely amid worries that recent layoffs and resignations could jeopardize basic functions, like approving new medicines. An internal email... Read More

    April 8, 2025
    by Tom Ramstack
    Appeals Court Sides With Agency Officials in Blocking Trump’s Job Terminations

    WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., on Monday restored two fired labor protection officials to their jobs... Read More

    WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., on Monday restored two fired labor protection officials to their jobs in a test of President Donald Trump's control over independent agencies. The two officials, Cathy Harris of the Merit Systems Protection Board and Gwynne Wilcox of... Read More

    April 1, 2025
    by Dan McCue
    Staff Reductions Begin at HHS, Surprising Many Impacted Workers

    WASHINGTON — Thousands of Department of Health and Human Services staffers received “reduction in force” notices in their email inboxes... Read More

    WASHINGTON — Thousands of Department of Health and Human Services staffers received “reduction in force” notices in their email inboxes Tuesday morning; unfortunately, those emails, sent around 5 a.m., failed to reach many of them before they’d already left for work. As a result, entry lines... Read More

    March 7, 2025
    by Dan McCue
    Trump Says Latest Job Numbers Show His Policies Are Working

    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that the first full jobs report of his second administration shows his policies... Read More

    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that the first full jobs report of his second administration shows his policies are working, despite the naysaying of those who claim his actions on trade and elsewhere are creating uncertainty in the economy. According to the Labor Department,... Read More

    March 7, 2025
    by Dan McCue
    Homeland Security Ends Collective Bargaining for TSA Officers

    WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security on Friday said it is ending collective bargaining with tens of thousands of... Read More

    WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security on Friday said it is ending collective bargaining with tens of thousands of Transportation Security Administration airport screeners, claiming union negotiations have “constrained” the agency’s mission. The move comes less than a year after the TSA and the American... Read More

    News From The Well
    scroll top