The Employment Situation: May 2005 — 2005-06-03

Nonfarm employment edged up by 78,000 in May following a much larger increase in April, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 5.1 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Pay- roll employment continued to grow over the month in health care and construction, but was little changed in the other major industry sectors. Both the number of unemployed persons, 7.6 million, and the unemployment rate, 5.1 percent, were essentially unchanged in May. The jobless rate was down from 5.6 percent a year earlier. Over the month, the unemployment rates for adult men (4.4 percent), adult women (4.6 percent), teenagers (17.9 per- cent), whites (4.4 percent), blacks (10.1 percent), and Hispanics or Latinos (6.0 percent) showed little or no change. The jobless rate for Asians was 3.9 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.) The number of long-term unemployed--those unemployed 27 weeks and over--was little changed over the month.