U.S. Creates 390K Jobs in May, Ahead of Expectations By

By Daniel Shvartsman

– The U.S. created 390,000 nonfarm jobs in May, beating expectations of 325,000 amid market concerns over a possible slowdown and the impact of persistent inflation pitted against continued strength in consumer spending.

The report showed the unemployment rate staying steady at 3.6%, higher than expectations of a drop to 3.5%, the pre-pandemic level in the U.S. economy. On the plus side, participation rate ticked up to 62.3%, slightly ahead of May's level.

Hourly earnings only rose 0.3% month over month, lower than expectations of a 0.4% rise and in line with last month's number.

On an industry level, services accounted for 274,000 job adds, with leisure and hospitality leading the way with 84K. Transportation and warehouse also saw a jump with 47K jobs added, while retail trade shed 60.7K jobs and motor vehicles and parts saw a decrease of 3,500 jobs. The last sector is on watch after Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk’s leaked email about job cuts at the EV automaker.

Prior months’ revisions netted to a decrease of 22,000 jobs between March and April. Per the BLS report, nonfarm payroll levels are down 822,000 or 0.5% from February 2020.

U.S. stock markets dropped on the strong report, perhaps on the reinforced conviction that the Federal Reserve will have no choice but to continue its rapid monetary tightening. At 08:45 am ET (1245 GMT), Dow Jones Futures were down 0.7% or 223 points, while S&P 500 Futures futures were down 0.9%, and Nasdaq 100 Futures futures were down 0.94%. The dollar also climbed against the Euro, as the latter traded at $1.0716.

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