The May 2022 Jobs Report: What is the Current U.S. Employment Situation?

The U.S. Department of Labor May jobs report for 2022 shows the job market managed to beat economists’ predictions for jobs added, while the number of unemployed persons rose slightly. The BLS report includes data on employment, unemployment, industries hiring in 2022, wages, and other metrics that shed light on the U.S. employment situation.

According to the May jobs report, the labor market added 390,000 new nonfarm jobs, edging past the Dow Jones’ prediction of 328,000. The unemployment rate remained at 3.6% for the third month in a row, which is 0.1 percentage points higher than in February 2020 before the pandemic. The number of unemployed persons rose to 6 million, up from 5.9 million in April. February 2020’s number of unemployed persons sat at 5.7 million.

Here are some other key statistics from the labor department jobs report:

• Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 0.3%to $31.95 in May, just lower than the predicted 0.4% increase.
• Total nonfarm payroll employment numbers for March and April were revised – down by 30,000 to 398,000 in March, and up by 8,000 to 436,000 in April.

The industries with the highest increases in job growth in May were leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and education. Employment in retail trade declined by 61,000 in May but is still 159,000 above its February 2020 level. Here’s how industries were impacted in May: 

May’s numbers indicate a slight cooldown when compared to March and April, but they still continue the trend of growth we’ve seen for most of 2022. While we are close to February 2020 numbers in most metrics, it likely won’t be for another few months before we return to pre-pandemic levels.

No matter if you’re hiring top talent or searching for your next job, there’s plenty of opportunity out there, and iHire is here to help.