Economists expected a new historic unemployment record. The US employment figures released Friday, June 5 by the labor department are excellent and support the thesis of a rapid economic rebound. The unemployment rate fell from 14.7% to 13.3% in May while the country created 2.5 million jobs. Since the start of the covid-19 pandemic, the results have remained apocalyptic: the country has seen the unemployment rate jump 9.8 points, or 15.2 million.
But this figure reflects the premises of the country's economic reopening. The number of people declaring themselves to be temporarily unemployed – their employer told them that they would hire them again after the crisis – fell by 2.7 million to fall to 15.3 million (after a jump of 16.2 million in April). In contrast, the number of permanent licensees stood at 2.3 million, an increase of 295,000. The participation in employment of Americans rose by 0.6 point to 60.8% after a fall of 2, 5 bridges in April.
In the wake of the publication of these unexpected figures, Donald Trump rejoiced on Twitter: "This is a staggering number. It's happy, let's say it like that. The market was right. It’s stunning. " Wall Street, in fact, has been betting for weeks on an optimistic scenario, the Nasdaq rich in technological values having even broken historical records. As of Friday morning, the Dow Jones index rose 2.63% while the Standard and Poor's 500 gained 2%. The Nasdaq gained only 0.8%.
Jobs in construction and medical services
The increase in part-time jobs accounts for two-fifths of the job growth. Coffee shops hired 1.4 million people after laying off 6.1 million people at the start of the crisis while the hotel industry continued to decline (1.1 million, up 148,000).
With the reopening and the good weather, construction has recovered half of its losses, with nearly 500,000 jobs created, while medical and dental services, all closed for weeks, have recreated 312,000 jobs. Retail trade is reopening, with 312,000 jobs created and 2.3 million destroyed in April. Factories are restarting, and with them employment in manufacturing (255,000 jobs created after a decline of 1.3 million destroyed in April). On the other hand, public employment, mainly in local authorities deprived of tax revenue, continues to fall sharply, with 585,000 job losses, which worsen the 963,000 in April.
The return to work of part of the employees and workers led to a drop in hourly wages, which fell by 29 cents to 29.75 dollars (about 26 euros), after a jump of 1.35 dollar, which explained by teleworking executives.
African-Americans, who were slightly less affected than others in April, are not benefiting from this recovery – their unemployment rate rose from 16.8% to 16.9%. Unemployment for whites fell from 14.2% to 12.4% while Latinos, who are benefiting from the reopening of catering and construction where they work significantly, see their unemployment rate drop by 16.7% to 15.1%.
