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. 

Statement of 

William J. Wiatrowski 

Acting Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Friday, June 1, 2018

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 223,000 in May, and the 

unemployment rate edged down to 3.8 percent. Over the month, 

employment continued to trend up in several industries, 

including retail trade, health care, and construction. 

Incorporating revisions for March and April, which 

increased nonfarm payroll employment by 15,000 on net, monthly 

job gains have averaged 179,000 over the past 3 months. 

In May, retail trade employment increased by 31,000, with 

job gains in general merchandise stores (+13,000) and in 

building material and garden supply stores (+6,000). Retail 

trade has added 125,000 jobs over the year. 

Health care employment rose by 29,000 over the month and is 

up by 318,000 over the year. In May, ambulatory health care 

services added 18,000 jobs, and employment in hospitals 

continued to trend up (+6,000). 
2 

Construction employment continued to trend up in May 

(+25,000). Nonresidential specialty trade contractors accounted 

for most of the job growth over the month with a gain of 15,000. 

Over the past year, construction employment has expanded by 

286,000, with nonresidential specialty trade contractors 

representing 41 percent of the growth. 

Employment in professional and technical services continued 

its upward trend in May (+23,000). This industry has added 

206,000 jobs over the past 12 months. 

Employment in transportation and warehousing expanded by 

19,000 in May. Within the industry, job gains occurred in 

warehousing and storage (+7,000) and in couriers and messengers 

(+5,000). Over the past 12 months, transportation and 

warehousing has added 156,000 jobs. 

Manufacturing employment trended up in May (+18,000). Job 

growth continued to be concentrated in the durable goods 

component, including a gain of 6,000 in machinery. Over the past 

12 months, manufacturing has added 259,000 jobs, with about 

three-fourths of this growth occurring in durable goods 

industries. 

Mining employment increased by 6,000 over the month. Since 

a recent low point in October 2016, employment in mining has 

grown by 91,000. 
3 

Employment in other major industries--wholesale trade, 

information, financial activities, leisure and hospitality, and 

government--showed little change in May. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls rose by 8 cents in May to $26.92. Over the past 12 

months, average hourly earnings have increased by 2.7 percent. 

From April 2017 to April 2018, the Consumer Price Index for All 

Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 2.4 percent (on a 

seasonally adjusted basis). 

Turning to data from the survey of households, the 

unemployment rate edged down to 3.8 percent in May, and the 

number of unemployed declined by 281,000 to 6.1 million. Over 

the year, the unemployment rate has declined by 0.5 percentage 

point and the number of unemployed has fallen by 772,000. 

The number of unemployed people searching for work for 27 

weeks or longer was 1.2 million in May, little changed over the 

month but down by 476,000 over the year. In May, these long-term 

unemployed accounted for 19.4 percent of the total unemployed. 

Both the labor force participation rate, at 62.7 percent, 

and the employment-population ratio, at 60.4 percent, changed 

little in May. 

Among the employed, the number of people working part time 

for economic reasons, also referred to as involuntary part-time 
4 

workers, was 4.9 million in May. This measure has held fairly 

steady since last fall. 

Among those neither working nor looking for work in May, 

1.5 million were considered marginally attached to the labor 

force, little different from a year earlier. Discouraged 

workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that 

no jobs were available for them, numbered 378,000 in May, also 

little different from a year earlier. (People who are marginally 

attached to the labor force had not looked for work in the 4 

weeks prior to the survey but wanted a job, were available for 

work, and had looked for a job within the last 12 months.) 

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment rose by 223,000 in 

May, and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.8 percent.