The Employment Situation: May 2003 — 2003-06-06

Both nonfarm payroll employment and the unemployment rate were about unchanged in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. There were job gains in temporary help services and construction, while losses continued in manufacturing. The unemployment rate was 6.1 percent in May; the number of unemployed persons was 9.0 million. Over the month, the unemployment rate for Hispanics increased to 8.2 percent. The rates for whites and adult men edged up to 5.4 and 5.9 percent, respectively. The jobless rates for the other major worker groups--adult women (5.1 percent), teenagers (18.5 per- cent), and blacks (10.8 percent)--showed little or no change from the previous month. The unemployment rate for Asians was 5.1 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.) The number of unemployed job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs rose by 309,000 to 5.1 million in May.