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Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 139,000 in May, slightly beating expectations. On the other hand, April’s job gain was revised downward dramatically by 30,000, from 177,000 to 147,000. The 12-month average stands at 149,000 job gains per month. The unemployment rate stayed the same at 4.2%, while the labor force participation rate edged down 0.2% to 62.4%.

Manufacturing employment slipped by 8,000, but the April loss of 1,000 was revised upward by 6,000 jobs to an increase of 5,000. Durable goods manufacturing employment fell by 7,000, while nondurable goods employment declined by 1,000. The most significant gain in manufacturing in May occurred in food manufacturing, which added 3,900 jobs over the month. Meanwhile, the most significant losses occurred in machinery manufacturing, which shed 7,300 jobs over the month, followed by paper manufacturing, which lost 1,500 jobs.

The employment-population ratio slipped 0.3% to 59.7% and is down 0.4 percentage points from a year ago. Employed persons who are part-time workers for economic reasons decreased by 66,000 to 4.60 million but are up from 4.42 million in May 2024. Native-born employment is down 444,000 over the month but up 1,337,000 over the year. Meanwhile, foreign-born employment is down 224,000 over the month but up 683,000 over the year.

Average hourly earnings for all private nonfarm payroll employees rose 0.4%, or 15 cents, reaching $36.24. Over the past year, earnings have grown 3.9%. The average workweek for all employees stayed the same at 34.3 hours but ticked up 0.1 hour for manufacturing employees to 40.1 hours.