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 

Keith Hall 

Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Friday, June 3, 2011

In May, nonfarm payroll employment changed little 

(+54,000), following increases that averaged 220,000 in the 

prior 3 months. The unemployment rate was essentially 

unchanged, at 9.1 percent, in May. Employment in the private 

sector was up by 83,000, compared with an average monthly gain 

of 244,000 in the prior 3 months. Since a recent employment low 

in February 2010, the private sector has added 2.1 million jobs. 

After accounting for job losses in the public sector, total 

nonfarm payrolls grew by 1.8 million over the period. 

Employment in professional and business services continued 

to increase in May (+44,000). Job gains occurred in accounting 

services and in computer systems design. Temporary help 

employment remained essentially unchanged. Health care added 

17,000 jobs over the month, compared with an average of 24,000 

jobs over the prior 12 months. 
2 

Employment growth continued in mining in May (+7,000). 

Since a recent low point in October 2009, mining employment has 

risen by 115,000, largely driven by gains in support activities 

for mining. 

Manufacturing employment showed little change in May 

(-5,000). From a recent low point in December 2009 through 

April 2011, manufacturing added 243,000 jobs. In May, job 

losses in transportation equipment, paper, and printing offset 

gains in fabricated metals and machinery. 

Local government employment decreased by 28,000 over the 

month and has declined by 446,000 since the peak in September 

2008. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls rose by 6 cents in May to $22.98. Over the past 12 

months, average hourly earnings have risen by 1.8 percent. From 

April 2010 to April 2011, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban 

Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 3.1 percent. 

Turning now to measures from our survey of households, the 

unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 9.1 percent in 

May. There were 13.9 million persons unemployed, little 

different from the prior month. The number of those jobless for 

27 weeks or more rose to 6.2 million in May and accounted for 

4.0 percent of the civilian labor force. The labor force 

participation rate has held at 64.2 percent since January. 
3 

I would note that the severe weather, including tornadoes 

and flooding, in the Midwest and the South did not materially 

affect data collection for either the payroll or household 

survey. In addition, while there is no question that some 

workers in the devastated communities may have been at least 

temporarily displaced from their jobs, we found no clear impact 

of the disasters on the national employment and unemployment 

data for May. In order for these events to have affected 

payroll employment, people would have had to have been off work 

for an entire pay period and not paid for the time missed. In 

the household survey, people who missed work for weather-related 

events were counted as employed whether or not they were paid 

for the time off. There will be state and local area estimates 

available later in the month. 

In summary, both nonfarm payroll employment and the 

unemployment rate were little changed in May.