Commissioner's Statement on the Employment Situation News Release — 2017-06-02

Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 138,000 in May, and the unemployment rate, at 4.3 percent, was little changed. Job gains occurred in health care and mining. Over the prior 12 months, payroll employment growth had averaged 181,000 per month. Incorporating revisions for March and April, which decreased nonfarm payroll employment by 66,000, monthly job gains have averaged 121,000 over the past 3 months. In May, employment in health care rose by 24,000. Hospitals added 7,000 jobs over the month, and employment in ambulatory health care services continued to trend up (+13,000). Job growth in health care has averaged 22,000 per month thus far in 2017, compared with an average monthly gain of 32,000 in 2016. Mining employment increased by 7,000 in May.