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

Kathleen P. Utgoff

Commissioner

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Friday, June 3, 2005

Nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 78,000 in May, 

following an increase of 274,000 in April. The 

unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 5.1 percent. 

Payroll job growth averaged 176,000 over the past 2 months, 

in line with the average monthly increase for the 12-month 

period ending in March. In May, job growth continued in 

health care and construction. 

In the service-providing sector, health care 

employment rose by 26,000 in May, following an increase of 

similar magnitude in April. The job growth in each month 

was concentrated in doctors’ offices and in hospitals.

In May, employment in both financial activities and 

temporary help services was about unchanged. There has 

been very little employment growth in temporary help since 

last October. Employment was little changed in leisure and 
2

hospitality in May. In April, this industry had a sizable 

job gain that reflected earlier-than-normal seasonal 

hiring.

In the goods-producing industries, construction 

employment was up by 20,000 in May, following an increase 

of 48,000 in the prior month. In May, 26,000 jobs were 

added in residential specialty trade contracting. 

Employment in nonresidential specialty trade contracting 

declined over the month, after a substantial increase in 

April. 

Manufacturing employment was essentially unchanged in 

May. After some months of modest job growth in the spring 

and summer of last year, factory employment has trended 

down and has nearly returned to its recent low point of 

February 2004. The manufacturing workweek was down by onetenth of an hour in May, and factory overtime held at 4.4 

hours. 

Average hourly earnings of private production or 

nonsupervisory workers rose by 3 cents in May to $16.03, 

following a 5-cent increase in April. Over the year, 

average hourly earnings grew by 2.6 percent.

Turning to some of the measures from our household 

survey, the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged in 

May at 5.1 percent. The jobless rate has trended down over 
3

the past year; last May, it was 5.6 percent. The labor 

force participation rate was 66.1 percent in May, about the 

same as a year earlier. The number of discouraged workers 

(persons outside the labor force who had stopped looking 

for work because they believed their job search efforts 

would be unsuccessful) declined by 84,000 over the year to 

392,000 (not seasonally adjusted).

In May, 1.5 million persons had been unemployed for 27 

weeks or longer. While the number of unemployed who had 

been jobless for such a long time period has trended down 

over the past year and a half, the long-term unemployed 

still account for about 1 in 5 unemployed persons.

To summarize May’s labor market data, nonfarm payroll 

employment edged up by 78,000, following a much larger 

increase in April. The unemployment rate was basically 

unchanged over the month at 5.1 percent.