Employers added 272,000 jobs in May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning. That number was well above the 185,000n projected by economists and even higher above the 175,000 in the April report.
The financial markets were disappointed with the news since it pushed out the schedule for an initial interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve.A cut a the July 31 Fed meting has now been priced out by the market.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.14% today and the NASDAQ Composite dropped 0.23%
The yield on the Treasury 10-year jumped 14 basis points to 4.43%. The dollar climbed the most since January. Gold, silver and copper tumbled. Oil also fell.
However, the unemployment rate ticked up to 4%, ending a historic 27-month streak of unemployment below that benchmark that last happened fifty years ago. (The jobs figure and the unemployment rate are calculated from data in two separate surveys that frequently don’t agree)
The unemployment rate edged up for Latinos, Asians, teenagers and adult men, but the unemployment rate jumped for African Americans in May, hitting 6.1%, up from up from 5.6% in April.
Average hourly wage growth accelerated sharply in May to $34.91, which is up 4.1% from the previous year. Wage growth has been a major driver in the strength of the U.S. economy and, to the Fed’s way of thinking, a major factor in the continued strength of inflation.
