The US labor market maintained its resilience in May as employers added 339,000 jobs, doubled market expectation, despite challenges posed by rising interest rates.
Several sectors, including business services, healthcare, construction, and transportation and warehousing, experienced job gains, according to the latest release from the Labor Department on Friday.
The department also revised the total non-farm payroll for March and April upwards, resulting in a net gain of 93,000 jobs.
Nonetheless, the unemployment rate rose to 3.7%, a slight increase from April’s 3.4%, as 440,000 more people reported they were unemployed, bringing the total to 6.1 million.
At the same time, labor force participation rate was flat at 62.6%, while the rate for prime-age labor (aged 25-54) increased a tick to 83.4%.
Still, competitions for workers are still intense as average hourly wage grew 4.3% in May, just a bit lower than the 4.35% in the previous month.
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