US economy added 223,000 jobs in May, unemployment rate at 18 year low

[1R0N M4N XL]

The U.S. economy added 223,000 job in May as U.S. companies continued their hiring spree, according to the Labor Department's monthly jobs report released Friday. The unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent, the lowest since 2000.

In a highly unusual move, President Trump tweeted early Friday morning that he was "looking forward to seeing the employment numbers." Trump's tweet moved markets as many on Wall Street thought the president was signaling that job gains would be far higher than the 200,000 that had been expected. Stocked jumped at the open with the Dow rising more than 200 points.

Many economists predict the unemployment rate will fall even further this year, potentially dropping to 3.5 percent, which would be the lowest rate since 1969. Wage growth ticked up slightly to 2.7 percent over the past year, but is still sluggish.

"The labor market is continuing its longest streak of job growth on record," said Martha Gimbel, researcher director at Indeed.com, an employment website. "This recovery is showing no sign of slowing down."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news....=.140ad52b828c

[KMack]

Humming along

[♥ Lily ♥]

Full-time or part-time jobs? (I only ask because I saw a report once several years ago that stated some US census figures don't include people who are only in p/t work amongst unemployment rates.)

If it's full-time job opportunities, then that's genuinely good news.

[♥ Lily ♥]

[MysteriousWays]

The official numbers are for any form of employment and also only count those who are actively seeking work as unemployed. I think numbers counting underemployment is around 8%, but the numbers I have are a couple of months old. Unfortunately, labor participation rate is still lagging and is at 63% (it was as high as 67% in 2000, and was about 65.5% prior to 2008. So this suggests there still be more slack in the economy, so the economy could improve even somewhat more without the unemployment rate changing much (or even going up slightly). Overall, very good news though.

[KMack]

The corporate tax rate cut, to get us in line with the rest of world, is HUGE.