IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
The U.S. job market stalled last month, adding only 38,000 jobs, according to data released Friday.
Despite that, the national unemployment rate dropped to 4.7 percent, down from five percent in April, the U.S. Department of Labor stated in its monthly jobs report.
The new jobs number was reportedly the lowest recorded since 2010, when the economy was still fighting its way out of the recession.
Overall, the May jobs report is a disappointment but probably an aberration that will correct itself during the next few months, said Jay Prag, professor of economics and finance at the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University
“It’s a perplexing report, and it has a few surprises in it,” Prag said. “There’s a change going on in the labor force, but I’m not sure what is. I think we’re in ‘wait-and-see’ mode at this point, and we should also be in ‘don’t overreact’ mode.”
The report did contain several bright spots: average hourly earnings rose five cents, to $25.59, and are up 2.5 percent during the past 12 months.
Also, long-term unemployment – people who have been out of work for 27 weeks or more – dropped by 178,000, to 1.9 million, in May. The number of “job losers” or people who completed temporary jobs declined by 282,000 month-over-month, to 3.6 million, the report stated.
