WASHINGTON - Today, Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee Mike Lee (R-UT) released the following statement in response to the U.S. Labor Department May 2019 jobs report:

“Ten years ago this month, our economy began its long recovery from the bottom of the Great Recession. Though May payroll job growth was not as strong as anticipated, the economy remains fundamentally resilient. Employers added 75,000 jobs last month, lower than expected. Growth in average hourly pay remains strong at 3.1% from a year ago. The unemployment rate remained a remarkably low 3.6%. We have come a long way since the 9.5% unemployment of a decade ago.”

Background: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. economy added 75,000 jobs in May. The combined jobs gains from March and April were revised down by 75,000, to 153,000 and 224,000 from 189,000 and 263,000, respectively. The overall labor force participation rate at 62.8%, the employment-to-population ratio at 60.6% and the unemployment rate at 3.6% remained unchanged. The number out of the labor force fell by 8,000. The labor force participation rate for prime-age workers ticked down 0.1 percentage point to 82.1%.

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