Unemployment Rate Edges Down to 4.6%
75,000 New Payroll Jobs Added in May
Joint Economic Committee (JEC)
Robert F. Bennett, Vice Chairman
May Employment and Unemployment: The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released a report today on employment and unemployment for May (BLS pdf summary available at http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf).
Highlights of the report:
· Non-farm payroll employment increased by 75,000 net new jobs in May.
· In the past 33 consecutive months with payroll job gains, over 5.3 million net new jobs have been created.
· Over the year ending in May, 1.9 million net new payroll jobs have been created.
· The unemployment rate (calculated from the household survey of employment) edged down to 4.6% in May, the lowest since July 2001.
o At 4.6%, the unemployment rate is well below the recent peak of 6.3% in June 2003 and below the averages of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
Robert F. Bennett, Vice Chairman
May Employment and Unemployment: The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released a report today on employment and unemployment for May (BLS pdf summary available at http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf).
Highlights of the report:
· Non-farm payroll employment increased by 75,000 net new jobs in May.
· In the past 33 consecutive months with payroll job gains, over 5.3 million net new jobs have been created.
· Over the year ending in May, 1.9 million net new payroll jobs have been created.
· The unemployment rate (calculated from the household survey of employment) edged down to 4.6% in May, the lowest since July 2001.
o At 4.6%, the unemployment rate is well below the recent peak of 6.3% in June 2003 and below the averages of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
