U.S. unemployment rate hits a 16-year lowYahoo Finance, Jun 2, 2017
The unemployment rate in America is at a 16-year low.
In May, the economy added 138,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 4.3%, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is a new post-crisis low for the unemployment rate — which is now at its lowest level since May 2001 — while headline job gains missed expectations.
Wage gains were tepid, rising 0.2% over the prior month and 2.5% over the prior year in May.
Each of the last two monthly job gains were revised down in Friday’s report, with March’s payroll growth coming down by 29,000 and April’s gains coming down by 37,000. Over the last three months, payroll gains have now averaged 121,000.
Investors were also keeping an eye on the underemployment rate, which takes not only the official unemployment rate but adds those who are working part-time but would prefer full-time work. In May this number stood at 8.4%, down from 8.6% in April. This is the lowest reading for this number since June 2007.
President Trump’s chief economic advisor Gary Cohn has said in recent months that the administration is focused on bringing the underemployment rate down.
More:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-jobs-report-may-2017-121859119.html
