Seth Wenig/AP
US employers added 223,000 nonfarm payrolls in May, more than expected, while the unemployment rate fell to an 18-year low of 3.8%, according to the jobs report released on Friday.
Economists had forecast that employers added 190,000 jobs on net while the unemployment rate remained at a 17-year low of 3.9%.
May is the 92nd straight month of job growth in the US — the longest streak ever.
Job openings are at a two-decade high, according to the most recent BLS data — good news for the droves of young people who recently graduated. And anecdotally, companies continue to lament about how difficult it is to fill positions for highly skilled workers.
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"Back in 2009, there were six unemployed workers competing for every open job; today that ratio is one, tipping the odds in favor of job seekers," said Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor's chief economist, in a preview.
But there are still many working-age people on the sidelines of the job market; more people joined the workforce in the first quarter of 2018 than 2017.
They included people who had no success and gave up on their job searches. They're captured in the so-called U-6 unemployment rate, which also includes people who work part-time but would rather be full-time and is higher than the headline rate. The good news, however, is that the gap between these two rates has been shrinking.
Wage growth, which has been depressed during most of this economic recovery, also increased by more than expected. Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% month-on-month (0.2% forecast), and 2.7% year-on-year (22.6% expected).
"Looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning," President Donald Trump tweeted on Friday. The President and other senior members of his administration are privy to the report the day before it's released.
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