Non-Farm Payrolls Up by 217,000, Uneployment Rate Unchanged at 6.3%

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today the unemployment data for the last month. According to the report, the nonfarm payroll employment advanced by 217,000 in May, while the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.3%. At the same time, in professional and business services, as well as in health care and social assistance, food services and drinking places, transportation and warehousing saw an increase in the employment last month.

The unemployment rate stayed at the same 6.3% level, after earlier in April it declined by 0.4 percentage points, and the number of unemployed remained unchanged at 9.8 million in May, the report added. Over the year, however, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed people decreased by 1.2 percentage points and 1.9 million respectively.

Among the long-term unemployed, which includes people without a  job for at least 27 weeks, remained unchanged at 3.4 million, accounting for 34.6% of the overall unemployed people. Over the year, however, this number has declined by 979,000, the report also said.

The average workweek for all employees on private non-farm payrolls remained unchanged at 34.5  hours in May. In the manufacturing section, the workweek added 0.2 hours in May and went up to 41.1 hours, while the factory overtime remained unchanged at 3.5 hours. For production and nonsupervisory employees on private non-farm payrolls, the workweek stayed at 33.7 hours.

In addition,  average hourly earnings for all employees on private non-farm payrolls gained $0.05 to $24.38 per hour. Over the past year, average hourly earnings advanced by 2.1%.

CNBC’s Steve Liesman also reported on the report issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He stated that the main good news from this report is that the U.S. economy has posted a 200,000 job growth in the last four months in a row. This is actually, the first time it has been posted in the last 14 years. Following these increases, all the jobs lost since the peak in unemployment rates at the beginning of the recession.

Watch the full report below: