The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its May jobs report Friday morning, estimating that nonfarm payrolls went up 75,000 with the unemployment rate holding steady at 3.6%, remaining at low levels last seen in December 1969.
The Hispanic unemployment rate remained at a record low of 4.2% in May while the unemployment rate for workers without a bachelor’s degree hit a record low, 3.4%.
Wage growth over the past year was reported to be 3.1%, rising faster than inflation, with real earnings up almost $900 per worker over last year.
Manufacturing job growth remained modest after two years of rapid gains, adding 30,000 jobs so far in 2019, about one-third the pace of the first two years. With the 2017 tax cut and reform incentivizing business to repatriate earnings held overseas, capital investments may act to improve productivity in manufacturing. This bears watching over the next year.
Federal, state and local government employment dipped by 15,000 in May, continuing to show far slower growth under President Trump than under President Obama.
The nation has added 5.4 million private sector jobs since the start of President Trump’s presidency, with added jobs 484,000 in manufacturing vs. 210,000 in government.
Significantly, cumulative private sector job growth has hit 4.4% since January 2017, with manufacturing jobs up 3.9% while the government sector has only grown 0.9%. During President Obama’s last two years, government was expanding at about twice the rate of manufacturing while so far during President Trump’s tenure, manufacturers are adding jobs at more than four times the rate of government.