As President Joe Biden seeks to improve the economy in the run-up to November’s midterm election, the job market is projected to have stalled in May, with fewer numbers on the books.
According to projections collected by FactSet, a data source, economists estimate that businesses gained 325,000 jobs last month, down from 428,000 in both March and April.
That figure is considered healthy, although it is the lowest in a year. If only 325,000 jobs are added, it will bring an end to a 12-month string in which job growth has exceeded 400,000.
From 3.6 percent, the jobless rate is forecast to drop to 3.5 percent, matching a half-century low.
Slower employment growth is projected now that the United States has recovered 95 percent of jobs lost during the first two months of the covid epidemic, according to economists.
Due to labor shortages, there was tight rivalry for workers, which resulted in higher wages as workers were slow to return to work after the shutdown.
However, as the country recovers from the pandemic, forecasters believe the market has reached a point of equilibrium.
According to the ADP National Employment Data released on Thursday morning, private payroll job growth slowed last month, which was considered as a foreshadowing of the May jobs report.
According to Refinitiv, companies gained 128,000 positions in May, significantly less than the 300,000 predicted by experts.
The downturn was the greatest since April 2020, when workers were ordered home as the pandemic spread and the country experienced a massive economic slump.
‘Under a backdrop of a tight labor market and elevated inflation, monthly job gains are closer to prepandemic levels,’ said Nela Richardson, chief economist at the payroll firm, ADP.
‘The job growth rate of hiring has tempered across all industries, while small businesses remain a source of concern as they struggle to keep up with larger firms that have been booming as of late.’
There were more encouraging data elsewhere.
Last week, the number of Americans filing new unemployment claims unexpectedly decreased as labor demand remained high.
In the second half of May, state unemployment benefits rolls fell to their lowest level since 1969, according to the Labor Department’s weekly unemployment claims report released on Thursday.