The US Department of Labor announced yesterday (June 5) that the economy created an additional 2.5 million jobs in May. The unemployment rate also decreased to 13.3%.
Previously, analysts in a Dow Jones survey said that the number of jobs lost in May was about 8.33 million.
However, the reality is that the number of jobs created in May was the highest since 1939. The last time the US recorded a job increase of millions was September 1983.
Job announcement outside a restaurant in Miami, Florida.
CNN explains that this is an unprecedented crisis, making it difficult for economists to accurately predict actual developments.
The US stock market jumped following the jobs report.
US President Donald Trump is of course very pleased with this news.
`It seems that the damage from the nationwide blockade is not as serious or long lasting, as we feared a month ago,` said Scott Clemons – investment strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman.
`When the second outbreak of Covid-19 is prevented, the US economy may have reached a turning point. The evidence is today’s surprising employment data, although we still need to wait and see when normal times return.
The number of additional jobs created almost matched the decrease of 2.7 million workers recorded as temporary job losses.
Entertainment and hotel workers contributed nearly half of last month’s increase.
The second group of beneficiaries is construction, creating an additional 464,000 jobs.
`It seems that businesses have started hiring again, in stronger numbers than expected. This is a trend that will continue as the blockade is eased across the country,` commented Eric Winograd – economist at AllianceBernstein.