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 

Erica L. Groshen 

Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Friday, June 3, 2016

The unemployment rate declined by 0.3 percentage point to 

4.7 percent in May, and nonfarm payroll employment changed 

little (+38,000). Job gains occurred in health care, while 

mining employment continued to decline. Information employment 

declined due to a strike. 

 Incorporating revisions for March and April, which reduced 

nonfarm payroll employment by 59,000, monthly job gains have 

averaged 116,000 over the past 3 months. In the 12 months prior 

to May, employment growth averaged 219,000 per month. 

 Health care employment increased by 46,000 in May. 

Ambulatory health care services (+24,000), hospitals (+17,000), 

and nursing care facilities (+5,000) added jobs over the month. 

Employment in health care has increased by 487,000 over the 

year. 

 Employment in professional and business services changed 

little in May (+10,000), after increasing by 55,000 in April. 

Within the industry, professional and technical services added 
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26,000 jobs in May, in line with average monthly gains over the 

prior 12 months. Temporary help services employment was little 

changed in May (-21,000) but is down by 64,000 thus far this 

year. 

 Within leisure and hospitality, employment changed little 

in food services and drinking places (+22,000). Job gains in 

this industry have averaged 19,000 per month in 2016, compared 

with average monthly gains of 30,000 in 2015. 

 In May, employment in construction changed little 

(-15,000) for the second month in a row. Monthly job growth had 

averaged 25,000 over the 12 months ending in March. 

 Mining employment continued to decline in May (-10,000). 

The industry has lost 207,000 jobs since a recent peak in 

September 2014. Three-fourths of the job losses over this period 

have been in support activities for mining. 

 In the information sector, employment fell by 34,000 in 

May, reflecting a strike by about 35,000 telecommunications 

workers. 

 Within manufacturing, employment declined by 18,000 in 

durable goods in May. Job losses occurred in machinery (-7,000) 

and in furniture and related products (-3,000). Employment in 

durable goods manufacturing has declined by 80,000 over the 

year. 
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 Average hourly earnings of all employees on private 

nonfarm payrolls rose by 5 cents in May to $25.59. Over the past 

12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.5 percent. 

From April 2015 to April 2016, the Consumer Price Index for All 

Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 1.1 percent (on a 

seasonally adjusted basis). 

 Turning now to data from our survey of households, the 

number of unemployed persons fell by 484,000 to 7.4 million in 

May, and the unemployment rate declined by 0.3 percentage point 

to 4.7 percent. Both measures had shown little movement from 

August to April. 

 In May, the number of long-term unemployed--those who had 

been looking for work for 27 weeks or more--declined to 1.9 

million. These individuals accounted for 25.1 percent of the 

unemployed. 

 The labor force participation rate decreased by 0.2 

percentage point over the month to 62.6 percent. The rate has 

declined by 0.4 percentage point over the past 2 months, 

offsetting gains in the first quarter. The employment-population 

ratio was unchanged at 59.7 percent in May. 

 Among the employed, individuals working part time for 

economic reasons increased by 468,000 to 6.4 million in May, 

after showing little movement since November. (These 

individuals, also referred to as involuntary part-time workers, 
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would have preferred full-time employment but were working part 

time because their hours had been cut back or because they were 

unable to find full-time work.) 

 Among people who were neither working nor looking for work 

in May, 1.7 million were classified as marginally attached to 

the labor force, little different from a year earlier. The 

number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally 

attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, was 

538,000 in May, also little different from a year earlier. (The 

marginally attached are individuals who 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, the unemployment rate declined to 4.7 percent 

in May, and nonfarm payroll employment changed little (+38,000).