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Queue in front of the US job center in Louisville: unemployment rate drops significantly
Photo: AMIRA KARAOUD / REUTERS
The US labor market has resumed its recovery from the corona pandemic after a weaker month.
Unemployment fell significantly in May and employment rose more sharply again.
A total of 559,000 new jobs were created outside of agriculture.
That was still a little less than economists had expected - but significantly more than in April, when only 278,000 new jobs were created.
Accordingly, unemployment also fell significantly.
The unemployment rate fell in May compared to the previous month by 0.3 percentage points to 5.8 percent.
Before the pandemic, however, it was much lower at 3.5 percent.
A particularly large number of jobs were added in May in those industries that are particularly affected by the pandemic.
These include above all service providers and retailers.
Almost 300,000 jobs were created in the leisure and hospitality sectors in May.
The main reason is likely to be the relaxation of corona restrictions in many US states.
At the construction site, however, the bottom line was that jobs were cut.
During the corona crisis, employment in the USA fell at a record pace in spring 2020.
The job market has since recovered.
However, many Americans are still unemployed, with around 9.3 million Americans currently according to the government.
This means that around three and a half million more people are unemployed than in February 2020, i.e. before the corona crisis.
The job growth in the US is accompanied by a significant increase in wages and salaries.
The average hourly wages rose by 0.5 percent compared to the previous month.
In the previous month, wage growth was strong at 0.7 percent.
Compared to May 2020, hourly wages increased by 2.0 percent.
Recently, an increasing number of companies had reported difficulties in finding workers.
Experts see one reason for this in the generous support payments from the state, which have now prevented many employees who have become unemployed in the corona crisis from looking for a job.
24 Republican-ruled states have therefore recently withdrawn from the aid program.
fdi / dpa-AFX