Payroll employment rises by 217,000 in May; unemployment rate unchanged at 6.3%

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION -- MAY 2014

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 217,000 in May, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in professional and business services, health care and social assistance, food services and drinking places, and transportation and warehousing.

Household Survey Data

The unemployment rate held at 6.3 percent in May, following a decline of 0.4 percentage point in April. The number of unemployed persons was unchanged in May at 9.8 million. Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons declined by 1.2 percentage points and 1.9 million, respectively. (See table A-1.)
....

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was essentially unchanged at 3.4 million in May. These individuals accounted for 34.6 percent of the unemployed. Over the past 12 months, the number of long-term unemployed has declined by 979,000. (See table A-12.)

The civilian labor force participation rate was unchanged in May, at 62.8 percent. The participation rate has shown no clear trend since this past October but is down by 0.6 percentage point over the year. The employment-population ratio, at 58.9 percent, was also unchanged in May and has changed little over the year. (See table A-1.)

Read more: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

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Live From New York! It’s Jobs Friday!

8:07 am ET
Jun 6, 2014
By Paul Vigna


—National Archives

Yes, it’s that time again, folks. It’s the first Friday of the month, when for one ever-so-brief moment the interests of Wall Street, Washington and Main Street are all aligned on one thing: Jobs.

A fresh update on the U.S. employment situation for May hits the wires at 8:30 a.m. Nonfarm employment is expected to have risen by 210,000 jobs last month, seasonally adjusted, with the jobless rate ticking up to 6.4% from 6.3% .

Here at MoneyBeat HQ, we are offering color commentary and tracking the markets before and after the data crosses the wires. Feel free to weigh-in yourself, via the comments section. And while you’re here, why don’t you sign up to follow us on Twitter.

Enjoy the show.

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Good morning, Freepers and DUers alike. I especially welcome our good friends from across the aisle. You're paying for this information too, so you ought to see this as much as anyone. Please, everyone, put aside your differences long enough to digest the information. After that, you can engage in your usual donnybrook.

Depending on where you look, you can find something to like or something not to like in the data. A commenter to the WSJ. blog notes that the labor force participation rate, which fell by 0.4 percentage point to 62.8 percent in April, held steady this month.

If you don't have the time to study the report thoroughly, here is the news in a nutshell:

Commissioner's Statement on The Employment Situation
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/jec.nr0.htm

What is important about these statistics is not so much this month’s number, but the trend. So let’s look at some earlier numbers.

ADP® (Automatic Data Processing), for employment in May 2014:

U.S. Economy Added 179,000 Private-Sector Jobs in May, According to ADP National Employment Report
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014818511

Bureau of Labor Statistics, for employment in April 2014:

Payroll employment rises 288,000 in April; unemployment rate falls to 6.3%
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014794234

ADP® (Automatic Data Processing), for employment in April 2014:

ADP National Employment Report Shows 220,000 Jobs Added in April
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014792358

Bureau of Labor Statistics, for employment in March 2014:

Payroll employment increases in March (+192,000); unemployment rate unchanged (6.7%)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014772273

ADP® (Automatic Data Processing), for employment in March 2014:

U.S. Economy Added 191,000 Private-Sector Jobs in March, According to ADP National Employment Report
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014770525

Bureau of Labor Statistics, for employment in February 2014:

Payroll employment increases in February (+175,000); unemployment rate changes little (6.7 percent)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014747923

ADP, for employment in February 2014:

U.S. Economy Added 139,000 Private-Sector Jobs in February, According to ADP National Employment Report
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014745826

Bureau of Labor Statistics, for employment in January 2014:

Payroll employment rises in January (+113,000); unemployment rate changes little (6.6%)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014721228

ADP, for employment in January 2014:

U.S. Economy Added 175,000 Private-Sector Jobs in January, According to ADP National Employment Report
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014719171

BLS, for employment in December 2013, which was wildly out of line with ADP's figure:

December unemployment rate declines (6.7%); payroll employment edges up (+74,000)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014693851

ADP, for employment in December 2013:

U.S. Economy Added 238,000 Private-Sector Jobs in December, According to ADP National Employment Report
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014691789

One more thing:

So how many jobs must be created every month to have an effect on the unemployment rate? There's an app for that.

http://www.frbatlanta.org/chcs/calculator/index.cfm
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Jobs Calculator™

Well, enough of that. On with the show.

Monthly Employment Reports

The large print giveth, and the fine print taketh away.

A DU'er pointed out several months ago that, if I'm going to post the link to the press release, I should include the link to all the tables that provide additional ways of examining the data. Specifically, I should post a link to Table A-15. Alternative measures of labor underutilization. Table A-15 includes those who are not considered unemployed, on the grounds that they have become discouraged about the prospects of finding a job and have given up looking. Here are those links.

Employment Situation

Table A-15. Alternative measures of labor underutilization

From the February 10, 2011, DOL Newsletter:

Take Three

Secretary Solis answers three questions about how the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates unemployment rates.

How does BLS determine the unemployment rate and the number of jobs that were added each month?

BLS uses two different surveys to get these numbers. The household survey, or Current Population Survey (CPS), involves asking people, from about 60,000 households, a series of questions to assess each person in the household's activities including work and searching for work. Their responses give us the unemployment rate. The establishment survey, or Current Employment Statistics (CES), surveys 140,000 employers about how many people they have on their payrolls. These results determine the number of jobs being added or lost.