The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that the U.S. economy added 390,000 jobs in May.
The unemployment rate was just above the lowest level since 1969 at 3.6%.
The unemployment rate was expected to edge lower to 3.5% by the economists surveyed.
The tight labor market is shrugging off fears of a downturn despite the slight cooling of the economy. There are signs of a healthy job market with no signs of slowing it down.
The 0.4% estimate was the lower of the two estimates for average hourly earnings. Wages increased in line with expectations.
Following the report, stock market futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street. The yield on government bonds moved higher.
The job gains were broad. A total of 84,000 positions were added by leisure andhospitality. Construction jobs increased by 36, and transportation and warehousing jobs increased by 47,000.
State government education, private education, health care, manufacturing, and wholesale trade all saw gains.
The retail trade lost 61,000 in May, but the sector is still 159,000 above its February 2020 pre-pandemic level.
The labor market has yet to recover all the positions that were lost during the Pandemic according to the BLS household survey. The total employment is 440,000 below pre-covid levels.
As the labor force is smaller by 207,000 from that mark, the labor force participation rose to 62.3%.
The measure of unemployment that takes into account those not looking for jobs and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons went up one-tenth of a percentage point from April. The unemployment rate for Asians fell to 2.5%, the lowest in three years, while the rate for Blacks increased to 6.2%.
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