Transmission of material in this statement is embargoed until 

8:30 a.m. (ET) June 5, 2020. 

Statement of 

William W. Beach 

Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Friday, June 5, 2020 

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 2.5 million in May, 

and the unemployment rate declined by 1.4 percentage points to 

13.3 percent. These improvements in the labor market reflected a 

limited resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed 

in March and April due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic 

and efforts to contain it. 

In May, employment rose in several major industry sectors, 

with the largest gains in leisure and hospitality, construction, 

education and health services, and retail trade. By contrast, 

employment in government continued to decline sharply. 

To put the May employment gain of 2.5 million in context, 

substantial job losses related to the coronavirus pandemic 

started in March, as payroll employment declined by 1.4 million, 

as revised. Job losses deepened considerably in April, as 

nonfarm employment plummeted by an additional 20.7 million, as 

revised. At 132.9 million in May, total nonfarm employment is 
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nearly 20 million (or 13 percent) lower than in February, before 

the pandemic crisis unfolded in many parts of the United States. 

Furthermore, although unemployment fell in May, the unemployment 

rate and the number of unemployed people are up by 9.8 

percentage points and 15.2 million, respectively, since 

February. 

The response rate for the household survey continued to be 

adversely affected by pandemic-related issues. The response rate 

for the establishment survey was slightly below normal for May. 

Changes made to the estimation methods for the 

establishment survey in April to better account for temporary or 

permanent business closures were kept in place for May. In 

addition, after further research, BLS extended these changes 

back to March, which accounted for a portion of the revision to 

March data. The impacts of the pandemic on the household and 

payroll surveys are detailed in the May Employment Situation 

news release and accompanying materials (available on the BLS 

website at www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm). 

Importantly, for both surveys, in May we were still able to 

obtain estimates that meet BLS standards for accuracy and 

reliability. 

Taking a closer look at the May payroll data, within the 

leisure and hospitality industry, food services and drinking 

places added 1.4 million jobs, after losing 5.4 million jobs in 
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April and 633,000 jobs in March. In contrast, employment 

continued to decline in the accommodation industry in May 

(-148,000) and has fallen by 1.1 million over the past 3 months. 

In May, construction employment increased by 464,000, 

recouping about half of the decline in April (-995,000). Job 

gains occurred among all the component industries in May. 

Notable job growth occurred in specialty trade contractors 

(+325,000), with gains about equally split between the 

residential and nonresidential components. Construction of 

buildings added 105,000 jobs. 

Employment increased by 424,000 in education and health 

services in May, after a decrease of 2.6 million in April. 

Health care employment rose by 312,000, with increases in 

offices of dentists (+245,000), offices of other health 

practitioners (+73,000), and offices of physicians (+51,000). 

Elsewhere in health care, job losses continued in nursing and 

residential care facilities (-37,000) and in hospitals 

(-27,000). Employment in social assistance increased by 78,000 

over the month, reflecting gains in child day care services 

(+44,000) and individual and family services (+29,000). 

Employment in private education rose by 33,000 over the month. 

Employment in retail trade rose by 368,000 in May, 

following a loss of 2.3 million in the prior month. Employment 

rose in several retail industries in May, including clothing 
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stores (+95,000), automobile dealers (+85,000), general 

merchandise stores (+84,000), building material and garden 

supply stores (+56,000), and miscellaneous store retailers 

(+55,000). By contrast, employment declined in electronics and 

appliance stores (-95,000); auto parts, accessories, and tire 

stores (-36,000); and health and personal care stores (-22,000). 

In May, employment in the other services industry increased 

by 272,000, after declining by 1.3 million in April. Two-thirds 

of the over-the-month job gain occurred in personal and laundry 

services (+182,000). 

Manufacturing employment rose by 225,000 in May, following 

a decline of 1.3 million in April. The job gains in May were 

about equally split between the durable and nondurable goods 

components. Within durable goods, employment increased in motor 

vehicles and parts (+28,000), fabricated metal products 

(+25,000), and machinery (+23,000). Within nondurable goods, job 

gains occurred in plastics and rubber products (+30,000), food 

manufacturing (+25,000), and printing and related support 

activities (+16,000). 

Professional and business services added 127,000 jobs in 

May, after losing 2.2 million jobs in April. Just over half of 

the job gain in May occurred in services to buildings and 

dwellings (+68,000). Additionally, employment increased in 

temporary help services (+39,000). By contrast, job losses 
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continued in management of companies and enterprises (-22,000) 

and computer systems design (-13,000). 

Over the month, employment in financial activities rose by 

33,000, following a decline of 264,000 in April. In May, most of 

the job gain occurred in real estate and rental and leasing 

(+24,000). 

Wholesale trade employment increased by 21,000 in May, with 

the nondurable goods component adding 13,000 jobs. Wholesale 

trade employment declined by 383,000 in April. 

Government employment continued to fall over the month, as 

a decline of 585,000 in May followed a decrease of 963,000 in 

April. The bulk of the employment declines occurred in local 

government, which lost 487,000 jobs in May and 797,000 jobs in 

April. Local government employment declines over the 2 months 

mainly reflected school closures. Employment in state government 

was down by 84,000 in May, particularly in state education 

(-63,000). 

Employment in information fell by 38,000 in May. The 

industry shed 272,000 jobs in April. 

Mining also continued to lose jobs in May (-20,000), mostly 

in support activities for mining (-16,000). Mining employment 

has declined by 77,000 over the past 3 months. 

Employment in transportation and warehousing fell by 19,000 

in May, after declining by 553,000 in April. Employment in air 
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transportation fell sharply in May (-50,000), following a loss 

of 79,000 in the prior month. In May, job gains occurred in 

couriers and messengers (+12,000) and transit and ground 

passenger transportation (+10,000). 

Average weekly hours for all private-sector workers showed 

an increase of 0.5 hour in May. There were notable increases in 

the average workweek for leisure and hospitality (+1.5 hours), 

construction (+1.0 hour), manufacturing (+0.8 hour), and retail 

trade (+0.8 hour). 

One should use caution when interpreting changes in the 

workweek at the total private nonfarm level. While employees in 

most industries saw an increase in their workweeks in May, large 

employment changes in industries with shorter-than-average 

workweeks can complicate monthly comparisons of the average 

weekly hours figures. 

Similarly, our estimates of average hourly earnings for May 

must be interpreted with caution. Average hourly earnings of all 

employees on private nonfarm payrolls declined by 29 cents in 

May to $29.75, following a gain of $1.35 in April. The increase 

in average hourly earnings in April largely reflects the 

disproportionate number of lower-paid workers who went off 

payrolls, which put upward pressure on the total private average 

hourly earnings estimate. In May, some of these workers returned 

to payrolls, which put downward pressure on average hourly 
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earnings, though the effect is more muted given the smaller 

magnitude of the employment change. The large changes in 

employment in recent months make it difficult to discern longerterm trends in the hours and earnings measures. 

Turning to the labor market indicators from the household 

survey, the unemployment rate declined by 1.4 percentage points 

to 13.3 percent in May. This follows a record-high increase of 

10.3 percentage points in April. The number of unemployed people 

decreased by 2.1 million in May, after increasing by 15.9 

million in April. 

The decrease in unemployment in May was driven by a decline 

among people on temporary layoff (-2.7 million). The decline was 

offset slightly by increases in the number of job losers not on 

temporary layoff, especially permanent job losers, which rose by 

295,000 to 2.3 million. The number of new entrants to 

unemployment rose slightly in May, to 536,000, essentially 

returning to its March level. 

The unemployment rate fell in May for adult men (11.6 

percent), adult women (13.9 percent), Whites (12.4 percent), and 

Hispanics (17.6 percent). The rates for teenagers (29.9 

percent), Blacks (16.8 percent), and Asians (15.0 percent) 

changed little over the month. 

Among the unemployed, the number of people searching for 

work for less than 5 weeks declined by 10.4 million to 3.9 
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million in May. These individuals made up 18.5 percent of the 

unemployed in May. The number of unemployed people who were 

jobless 5 to 14 weeks more than doubled, increasing by 7.8 

million to 14.8 million, and accounted for 70.8 percent of the 

unemployed in May. The number of people searching for work for 

27 weeks or more rose to 1.2 million, offsetting a decline in 

April. 

The labor force participation rate increased by 0.6 

percentage point in May to 60.8 percent, following a decline of 

2.5 percentage points in April. Total employment, as measured by 

the household survey, rose by 3.8 million to 137.2 million in 

May, following a large decline in April (-22.4 million). The 

employment-population ratio increased by 1.5 percentage points 

to 52.8 percent in May. This followed a decline of 8.7 

percentage points in April. 

The number of people who usually work full time rose by 2.2 

million over the month to 116.5 million, and the number who 

usually work part time increased by 1.6 million to 20.7 million. 

Both these measures had declined sharply in April. Part-time 

workers accounted for about two-fifths of the over-the-month 

employment growth. 

In May, the number of people at work part time for economic 

reasons (also referred to as involuntary part-time workers) 

changed little at 10.6 million, after nearly doubling in April. 
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The number of workers affected by this type of underemployment 

is up by 6.3 million since February of this year. 

The number of people not in the labor force who currently 

want a job declined by 954,000 to 9.0 million in May. This 

followed a large increase in April (+4.4 million). While down 

from April, the presence of a large number of individuals who 

indicate that they want a job but were not actively looking for 

one reflects the ongoing impact of the pandemic on the job 

market. Mandatory business closures, stay-at-home orders, and 

fear of the coronavirus illness likely kept many individuals 

from engaging in labor market activity. 

Among those who were not in the labor force in May but 

wanted a job, 2.4 million were considered marginally attached to 

the labor force, little changed over the month. (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.) Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally 

attached who believed no jobs were available for them, numbered 

662,000 in May, also little changed over the month. 

There continued to be a large number of workers who were 

classified as employed but absent from work for the entire 

reference week. As in March and April, special instructions sent 

to household survey interviewers called for employed people 
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absent from work due to coronavirus-related business closures to 

be classified as unemployed on temporary layoff. However, not 

all such workers were so classified in May, despite additional 

training given to household survey interviewers. BLS and the 

Census Bureau continue to investigate this issue, and we’re 

taking additional steps to address the problem. 

As is our usual practice, no ad hoc actions were taken to 

reassign survey responses; the data were accepted as recorded. 

If the workers who were recorded as employed but absent from 

work due to "other reasons" (over and above the number absent 

for other reasons in a typical May) had been classified as 

unemployed on temporary layoff, the overall unemployment rate 

would have been about 3 percentage points higher than reported 

(on a not seasonally adjusted basis). Additional information is 

available online at www.bls.gov/cps/employment-situationcovid19-faq-may-2020.pdf. 

Summarizing the labor market developments in May, nonfarm 

payroll employment rose by 2.5 million, and the unemployment 

rate declined to 13.3 percent.