Confounding earlier predictions forecasting modest growth, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported a robust job increase of some 272,000 in May, up from the 165,000 reported the month before.
“Employment continued to trend up in several industries,” the Employment Situation Summary reports, “led by health care; government; leisure and hospitality; and professional, scientific, and technical services.”
The 272,000-job gain was, on average, the strongest report seen for most of this year, with the exception of March, which posted 310,000 new jobs. The latest figures are up over the 232,000 job average for the last twelve months, “scrambling the picture of an economy that’s relaxing into a more sustainable pace,” remarked the New York Times.
The strong numbers, suggested the Washington Times, should be taken as a sign that “companies are still confident enough in the economy to keep hiring despite persistently high interest rates.”
In the construction sector, 17,100 new jobs were recorded for May, with nonresidential building seeing a 5.2% gain over where things stood at this same time exactly a year ago and the nonresidential specialty trade contractors up by 3.3% over May of 2023.
“Despite perpetual fears of recession and the dislocating impacts of high borrowing costs, the U.S. nonresidential construction is adding jobs rapidly and will continue to do so,” Anirban Basu, chief economist with the Associated Builders and Contractors, remarked of the new numbers in a statement.
Basu added that the rapid increase in construction projects continues to “more than offset the negative impacts of elevated project financing costs.”
The continued construction job gain was equally celebrated by Ken Simonson, chief economist with the Associated General Contractors, who remarked: “Construction firms have been adding workers at a faster clip than most sectors.”
Simonson added, however, that “contractors say they are still having trouble finding enough skilled workers to meet the demand for data centers, manufacturing plants, renewable energy, and infrastructure projects.”
By Garry Boulard
Image Credit: Courtesy of Pixabay
