The number of new U.S. jobs created in May slowed a bit after a big gain in April, but the brisk pace of hiring still pointed to a spring revival in the economy.
The U.S. created 217,000 nonfarm jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had predicted employment would rise by 210,000 nonfarm jobs.
The robust increase in hiring in May follows a slightly revised 282,000 gain in new jobs in April and 203,000 in March.
The unemployment rate held steady at 6.3% as more people entered the labor market in search of work.
The somewhat better-than-expected May employment report didn’t do much to markets, with stock futures narrowly higher.
So far in 2014, the economy has created an average of 214,000 jobs a month, about 10% above the 2013 pace of 194,000. The past four months have marked the second-best stretch of hiring since the Great Recession ended in mid-2009.
The U.S. has now recovered all the jobs lost after the 2007-2009 downturn, but it took more than six years to surpass its prior peak of 138.25 million workers. Not since the Great Depression in the 1930s has it taken so long to recover all the jobs lost during a downturn.
In May, professional services, health care, bars and restaurants and transportation added the most new jobs. The professional ranks swelled by 55,000, one-fourth of whom were temps. Health care added 34,000 workers, bars and restaurants hired 32,000 people and the transportation sector increased payrolls by 16,000.
Yet two key sectors that pay well, manufacturing and construction, only gained a combined 16,000 jobs.
Source: Marketwatch
