Payroll employment in the U.S. showed another notable increase in the month of May, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Friday, although the increase in jobs was largely due to the hiring of temporary employees to work on the census.
The report showed that non-farm payroll employment increased by 431,000 jobs in May following an unrevised increase of 290,000 jobs in April. The job growth fell short of economist estimates for an increase of about 500,000 jobs.
While the increase in jobs in May marked the fastest pace of job growth since March of 2000, the increase was primarily due to the addition of 411,000 temporary employees to work on Census 2010.
At the same time, the Labor Department said that the private sector added only 41,000 jobs in May after adding 218,000 jobs in April. The modest increase marked the weakest pace of private sector job growth since January.
The manufacturing and temporary help services industries reported notable job growth for the month of May, although the growth was partly offset by a notable drop in construction jobs.
Paul Ashworth, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said, "This is a timely reminder that, although the economic outlook is improving, the recovery is still pretty tepid."
Payroll processor Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) released a separate report on Thursday showing that private sector employment increased by 55,000 jobs in May following an upwardly revised increase of 65,000 jobs in April.
While private employment increased for the fourth straight month, ADP noted that the job growth over the fourth months has averaged a modest 39,000.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department also said that the unemployment rate slipped to 9.7 percent in May from 9.9 percent in April. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to edge down to 9.8 percent.
James Knightley, an economist at ING Financial Markets, said, "There was some better news elsewhere, with hours worked rising and average hourly earnings accelerating to 0.3%MoM, which suggests that gross pay is picking up nicely."
"So despite the softer than anticipated payrolls figure the fact that more people are in work and are earning more money is a good sign for consumer sentiment and therefore spending in the coming months," he added.
The report showed that the average workweek increased by 0.1 hour to 34.2 hours, while average hourly earnings increased by 0.3 percent to $22.57.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.