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 2, 2017

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.
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Mining employment increased by 7,000 in May. Since a 

recent low point last October, mining has added 47,000 jobs, 

with most of the gain in support activities for mining.

Employment in professional and business services continued 

to trend up in May (+38,000). Job gains have averaged 46,000 per 

month thus far this year, in line with the average monthly job 

gain in 2016.

Employment in food services and drinking places also 

continued to trend up over the month (+30,000) and has increased 

by 267,000 over the year.

Employment in other major industries--construction, 

manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and 

warehousing, information, financial activities, and government--

showed little change over the month.

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private 

nonfarm payrolls increased by 4 cents to $26.22 in May. Over the 

past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.5 

percent. From April 2016 to April 2017, the Consumer Price Index 

for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 2.2 percent (on a 

seasonally adjusted basis).

Turning now to measures from the survey of households, the 

unemployment rate, at 4.3 percent, changed little over the month

but is down by half a percentage point since January. The number 
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of unemployed persons, at 6.9 million, also changed little in 

May but is down by 774,000 since January.

Among the unemployed in May, 1.7 million had been 

searching for work 27 weeks or longer. These long-term 

unemployed accounted for 24.0 percent of the total unemployed.

The labor force participation rate declined by 0.2 

percentage point to 62.7 percent in May but has shown no clear 

trend over the past year. The employment-population ratio edged 

down to 60.0 percent over the month.

Among employed people, the number working part time for 

economic reasons, also referred to as involuntary part-time 

workers, was little changed at 5.2 million in May. This measure 

has continued to trend downward but remains above pre-recession 

levels.

Among those neither working nor looking for work in May, 

1.5 million people were marginally attached to the labor force, 

238,000 lower than a year earlier. Discouraged workers, a subset 

of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were 

available for them, numbered 355,000 in May, down by 183,000 

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.)
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In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 

138,000 in May, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 

4.3 percent.