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 6, 2014

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 217,000 in May, and the 

unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.3 percent. Employment rose 

in professional and business services, health care and social 

assistance, food services and drinking places, and 

transportation and warehousing. 

Incorporating the revisions for March and April, which 

decreased total nonfarm employment by 6,000 on net, monthly job 

gains have averaged 234,000 over the past 3 months. In the 12 

months prior to May, employment growth averaged 197,000 per 

month. 

With the gains in May, payroll employment now exceeds its 

pre-recession level. Nonfarm payroll employment fell by 8.7 

million from January 2008 through February 2010. Since then,

employment has risen by 8.8 million. 
2

In May, employment in professional and business services 

rose by 55,000, the same as its prior 12-month average gain. 

Within this industry, employment increased over the month in 

computer systems design and in management and technical 

consulting. Employment in temporary help services continued to 

trend up (+14,000) and has grown by 224,000 over the past year. 

Health care and social assistance added 55,000 jobs over 

the month. The health care industry added 34,000 jobs in May, 

twice its average monthly gain for the prior 12 months. Within 

health care, employment rose by 23,000 in May in ambulatory 

health care services (which includes doctors’ offices, 

outpatient care, and home health care) and by 7,000 in 

hospitals. Employment in social assistance rose by 21,000 in 

May, compared with an average monthly gain of 7,000 over the 

prior 12 months. 

Employment in food services and drinking places rose by 

32,000 in May. Over the past year, food services has added 

311,000 jobs. 

Transportation and warehousing employment increased by 

16,000 in May. Over the prior 12 months, this industry had added 

an average of 9,000 jobs per month. In May, job gains occurred 

in support activities for transportation (+6,000) and in 

couriers and messengers (+4,000).
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Manufacturing employment changed little over the month but 

has added 105,000 jobs over the past year. Within the industry, 

durable goods added 17,000 jobs in May and has accounted for the 

net job gain in manufacturing over the past 12 months. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls rose by 5 cents in May. Over the past 12 months, 

average hourly earnings have risen by 2.1 percent. From April

2013 to April 2014, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban 

Consumers (CPI-U) rose by 2.0 percent. 

Turning now to our survey of households, the unemployment 

rate was unchanged at 6.3 percent in May, following a decline of 

0.4 percentage point in April. The number of unemployed persons 

remained at 9.8 million in May. Over the year, the unemployment 

rate has declined by 1.2 percentage points, and the number of 

unemployed has decreased by 1.9 million.

 In May, the labor force participation rate was unchanged 

at 62.8 percent. It has shown no clear trend since this past 

October but is down by 0.6 percentage point over the year.

 Among persons who were neither working nor looking for 

work in May, 2.1 million were classified as marginally attached 

to the labor force, about unchanged from a year earlier. (These

individuals 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.) The number of discouraged 
4

workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that 

no jobs were available for them, was 697,000 in May, little 

different from a year ago. 

 In summary, nonfarm payroll employment rose by 217,000 in 

May, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.3 percent.