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                        Statement of
                              
                     Kathleen P. Utgoff
                        Commissioner
                 Bureau of Labor Statistics
                              
                    Friday, June 3, 2005


     Nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 78,000 in May,
following an increase of 274,000 in April.  The unemployment
rate was essentially unchanged at 5.1 percent.  Payroll job
growth averaged 176,000 over the past 2 months, in line with
the average monthly increase for the 12-month period ending
in March.  In May, job growth continued in health care and
construction.
     
     In the service-providing sector, health care employment
rose by 26,000 in May, following an increase of similar
magnitude in April.  The job growth in each month was
concentrated in doctors’ offices and in hospitals.
     
     In May, employment in both financial activities and
temporary help services was about unchanged.  There has been
very little employment growth in temporary help since last
October.  Employment was little changed in leisure and
hospitality in May.  In April, this industry had a sizable
job gain that reflected earlier-than-normal seasonal hiring.
     
     In the goods-producing industries, construction
employment was up by 20,000 in May, following an increase of
48,000 in the prior month.  In May, 26,000 jobs were added
in residential specialty trade contracting.  Employment in
nonresidential specialty trade contracting declined over the
month, after a substantial increase in April.
     
     Manufacturing employment was essentially unchanged in
May.  After some months of modest job growth in the spring
and summer of last year, factory employment has trended down
and has nearly returned to its recent low point of February
2004.  The manufacturing workweek was down by one-tenth of
an hour in May, and factory overtime held at 4.4 hours.
     
     Average hourly earnings of private production or
nonsupervisory workers rose by 3 cents in May to $16.03,
following a 5-cent increase in April.  Over the year,
average hourly earnings grew by 2.6 percent.
     
     Turning to some of the measures from our household
survey, the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged in
May at 5.1 percent.  The jobless rate has trended down over
the past year; last May, it was 5.6 percent.  The labor
force participation rate was 66.1 percent in May, about the
same as a year earlier.  The number of discouraged workers
(persons outside the labor force who had stopped looking for
work because they believed their job search efforts would be
unsuccessful) declined by 84,000 over the year to 392,000
(not seasonally adjusted).
     
     In May, 1.5 million persons had been unemployed for 27
weeks or longer.  While the number of unemployed who had
been jobless for such a long time period has trended down
over the past year and a half, the long-term unemployed
still account for about 1 in 5 unemployed persons.
     
     To summarize May’s labor market data, nonfarm payroll
employment edged up by 78,000, following a much larger
increase in April.  The unemployment rate was basically
unchanged over the month at 5.1 percent.