\u201cToday\u2019s report shoes that the labor market sill has a lot of momentum,\u201d said\u00a0Glassdoor Chief Economist Dr. Andrew Chamberlain. \u201cAll the factors that sparked weak jobs numbers for March were temporary. A late winter sniffle rather than a lingering illness.\u201d\u00a0Chamberlain went as far as to say that if you visited the U.S. from another planet right now and took a broad view of the labor market you would have to conclude that things are pretty good right now. Of\u00a0the 563,000 discouraged workers in May \u2014 people not currently looking for work\u00a0because they don\u2019t believe jobs are available for them \u2014 he asks, \u201cIf you\u2019re not getting back in now when are you going to? This is as good as it ever gets.\u201d<\/p>\n
To be sure the number of discouraged works has dropped substantially, down by 134,000 from a year ago.\u00a0The labor force participation rate was little changed at 62.9%, this rate has been remained in a narrow\u00a062.7% to 62.9% range since last April. But the employment-population ratio was up slightly to 59.4%.\u00a0Robin Anderson,\u00a0senior economist at $331 billion assets under management Principal Global Investors, pointed out this number doesn\u2019t move very often so it is meaningful when it does.<\/p>\n
Currently\u00a08.7\u00a0million\u00a0Americans\u00a0are unemployed. At issue\u00a0for months, however, has been\u00a0the large percentage of people who are working part-time not by choice but because they had not better option. The U-6 rate, which measures under-employment, came in at 10.8% in May unchanged\u00a0from a month earlier and 12.1% a year earlier. This accounts for about 6.7 million workers.<\/p>\n
Wages have also been a lingering issue for both economists and discouraged workers. In May\u00a0average hourly earnings rose\u00a0by 8 cents to $24.96. The 12-month wage growth rate ticked up to 2.3%. Pre-crisis annual wage growth was north of 3% but economists view this latest bump as a move in the right direction. Plus, with major employers\u00a0like Wal-Mart Stores, McDonald’s and Target raising the minimum wage for their workers many anticipate a further bump to this figure.<\/p>\n
Chamberlin pointed to Glassdoor data showing high demand for workers from\u00a0tech, professional services, health care\u00a0and hospitality businesses. These industries are seeing some wage growth. When there is an in balance of supply and demand employers need to offer slightly better wages. These are not coincidentally the sectors that added the most jobs last month:\u00a0business services\u00a0(plus 63,000), leisure and hospitality\u00a0(57,000) and health care\u00a0(47,000). Employment in mining fell for the fifth month is a row with 17,000 jobs lost mostly in support activities. Mining employment has declined by 68,000 this year thanks to lower oil price. These are also sectors that are seeing stagnant wages.<\/p>\n
Perc Pineda, senior economist of Credit Union National Association, notes that wage growth will need to continue to sustain economic growth especially as new college graduates enter the workforce. \u201cWe have added 3 million Americans into the labor market but most burdened with student debt,\u201d he says. Since debt repayments to not contribute to output that major expense is not factored into GDP calculations. New grads therefore will need higher wages in order to fully participate in the economy by spending rather than just paying down debt.<\/p>\n
In the first 30 minutes following the release stock futures sand into negative territory. The S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite were each down about 0.3%. The\u00a0yield on the ten year Treasure note was up as high as\u00a02.43%.\u00a0BLS\u00a0\u2014 a division of the Department of Labor\u00a0\u2014 will report June\u00a0jobs numbers on Thursday, July 2\u00a0at 8:30 a.m.<\/p>\n
Wednesday, payroll giant ADP said that private employers added 201,000 jobs last month. This was slightly above economists\u2019 consensus estimate and the first month in three that the reading \u2014 considered a loose indicator for the BLS report \u2014 came in above\u00a0200,000, a level it consistently hit or exceeded in the second half of 2014 and early months of 2015.<\/p>\n
Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody\u2019s Analytics (which works with ADP on the report), said at the time, \u201cThe job market posted a solid gain in May.\u00a0Employment growth remains near the average of the past couple of years. At the current pace of job\u00a0growth the economy will be back to full employment by this time next year. The only blemishes are the\u00a0decline in mining jobs due to the collapse in oil prices and the decline in manufacturing due to the strong\u00a0dollar.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article was written by Samantha Sharf from Forbes and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.\u00a0SmartRecruiters is the\u00a0hiring success\u00a0platform<\/a>\u00a0to find and hire great people.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pixel.newscred.com\/px.gif?key=YXJ0aWNsZT0yMzk4ZGVkOTI0M2I5ZTk0NjRhNjk5MGNkOTQxMTY0NiZwdWJsaXNoZXI9YTdjZjY4YjgwOGFiZTIzN2M1ZWJiN2FiYzRhMzhjYzM=\")
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