Summary
- The labor market may be emerging from a prolonged slowdown, with three straight months of job gains above 100,000.
- The labor market is undergoing complex changes driven by demographics, artificial intelligence adoption and evolving industry needs.
- But economists caution that a protracted war could keep gas prices high and cut into consumer spending.
AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.
The US labor market appears to have found its footing: The economy added 172,000 jobs in May, shattering expectations, new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Friday.
The latest jobs report provided some reassurance that the US labor market may be stabilizing after a year of weak and stilted job growth: Unemployment held steady at 4.3%, while employment gains topped 100,000 for the third consecutive month, a pattern not seen since early 2024.
Job growth was also far stronger than initially thought in recent months. March’s payroll gains were revised up by 29,000 to 214,000, while April’s tally was revised higher by 64,000 to 179,000 jobs added.
Economists were expecting that employers added 105,000 jobs last month and that the unemployment rate wouldn’t budge from 4.3%.
Recent months’ data appears to indicate that the labor market and broader economy remain resilient despite a barrage of shocks. However, economists caution that a protracted war could keep gas prices high and cut into consumer spending, raise business costs, and trickle into higher prices for other goods and services.
May’s job gains were slightly more broad-based than in prior months, as hiring ramped up in the leisure and hospitality sector as well as the public sector (specifically, local governments) in addition to the stalwart job-generator of healthcare, BLS data showed.
Leisure and hospitality added an estimated 70,000 jobs in May, more than double the gains in April for the industry; the government sector added 52,000 jobs (with local government, excluding education, accounting for 43,500 of those); and healthcare and social assistance added 47,200 jobs.
This story is developing and will be updated.
