The job market unexpectedly reversed its free fall in May as employers brought back millions of workers after pandemic-induced layoffs and the unemployment rate declined, the New York Times reported. Tens of millions remain out of work, and the unemployment rate, which fell to 13.3 percent from 14.7 percent in April, remains higher than in any previous postwar recession. But employers added 2.5 million jobs in May, the Labor Department said Friday, defying economists’ expectations of further losses and offering hope that the rebound from the pandemic-induced economic crisis could be faster than forecast. The report noted that “employment rose sharply in leisure and hospitality, construction, education and health services, and retail trade,” even as jobs in the government continued their decline. Read more.
Despite reports that the unemployment rate had fallen in May amid the coronavirus pandemic, not all furloughed workers were classified as "unemployed," Newsweek reported. Had they been counted, the rate would have risen by 3 percent. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released unemployment data for May on Friday morning. The official unemployment rate for May was 13.3 percent, down 1.4 percent from April's rate of 14.7 percent. However, according to the BLS, furloughed workers should be classified as "unemployed on temporary layoff." A number of these workers were instead mistakenly classified as "employed but not at work." Though some people classified as "unemployed on temporary layoff" were correctly identified, the BLS estimates that about 4.9 million workers out of 5.4 million were erroneously listed as being employed. Had these miscategorized workers been counted correctly, the BLS estimates the true unemployment rate would be 16.4 percent. While this adjusted rate is higher than April's official rate, the BLS says a similar misclassification happened in that month as well, and the adjusted rate for April would be 19.2 percent. Read more.
The black unemployment rate rose slightly, to 16.8 percent, up 0.1 percent since last month, Vox.com reported. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this means 3.3 million black Americans were unemployed in May, compared to 3.2 million in April, and 1.2 million in January. Asian Americans also did not benefit from the overall falling unemployment — the unemployment rate for that community increased slightly, 0.5 percentage points from April to May, coming in at 15 percent. Instead, the gains were driven largely by white workers, whose unemployment rate fell from 14.9 percent in April to 12.4 percent in May. The unemployment rate for Latinx workers fell slightly to 17.6 percent, down from 18.9 percent in April. Read more.
