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 5, 2015

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 280,000 in May, and the 

unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 5.5 percent.

Employment rose in professional and business services, leisure 

and hospitality, and health care. Job losses continued in 

mining. 

Incorporating the revisions for March and April, which 

increased nonfarm employment by 32,000, on net, monthly job 

gains have averaged 207,000 over the past 3 months. In the 12 

months prior to May, employment growth averaged 251,000 per 

month. 

Employment in professional and business services rose by 

63,000 in May and by 671,000 over the year. Within the industry, 

computer systems design and related services added 10,000 jobs 

in May. Employment continued to trend up in temporary help 

services (+20,000), in management and technical consulting 
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services (+7,000), and in architectural and engineering services 

(+5,000). 

Employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 57,000 

over the month, after changing little in the prior 2 months. 

Employment in arts, entertainment, and recreation edged up in 

May (+29,000). Employment in food services and drinking places 

has shown little net change over the past 3 months. 

Employment in health care increased by 47,000 in May and 

has grown by 408,000 over the year. Ambulatory health care 

services (+28,000) and hospitals (+16,000) added jobs over the 

month. 

Retail trade employment edged up in May (+31,000). Over the 

prior 12 months, the industry had added an average of 24,000

jobs per month. In May, automobile dealers added 8,000 jobs. 

Employment continued to trend up in May in construction 

(+17,000), transportation and warehousing (+13,000), and 

financial activities (+13,000). 

Manufacturing employment changed little for the fourth 

month in a row. The industry had added an average of 18,000 jobs 

per month from January 2014 to January 2015. 

Mining lost 17,000 jobs in May. The decrease was in support 

activities for mining, which include those for oil and gas 

operations. Employment in mining has fallen by 68,000 thus far 
3

in 2015, more than offsetting the 41,000 jobs gained during 

2014. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls rose by 8 cents in May to $24.96. Over the past 12 

months, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.3 percent. From 

April 2014 to April 2015, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban 

Consumers (CPI-U) declined by 0.1 percentage point (on a 

seasonally adjusted basis). 

Turning now to data from our survey of households, both the 

unemployment rate, at 5.5 percent, and the number of unemployed 

persons, at 8.7 million, were essentially unchanged in May and 

have shown little movement since February. Among those 

unemployed in May, 28.6 percent had been jobless for 27 weeks or 

longer. Both the number of long-term unemployed and their share 

of total unemployment have fallen over the past 12 months.

The civilian labor force rose by 397,000 in May. The labor 

force participation rate, at 62.9 percent, changed little over 

the month and has remained within a narrow range of 62.7 percent 

to 62.9 percent since April 2014. The employment-population 

ratio was essentially unchanged, at 59.4 percent, in May.

The number of persons employed part time for economic 

reasons was about unchanged at 6.7 million in May and has shown 

little movement in recent months. These individuals, who would 

have preferred full-time employment, were working part time 
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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, 1.9 million were classified as marginally attached to 

the labor force, down by 268,000 over the year. 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 

workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that 

no jobs were available for them, was 563,000 in May, down by 

134,000 over the year. 

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment rose by 280,000 in 

May, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 5.5 

percent.