(MENAFN) Surpassing market expectations, the US economy added 339,000 jobs in May, as reported by the Labor Department on Friday. Analysts had projected a gain of 180,000 nonfarm payrolls for the month. Furthermore, job additions for April were revised upward by 41,000, reaching a total of 294,000. However, the unemployment rate unexpectedly rose to 3.7 percent, increasing by 0.3 percentage points compared to April's rate of 3.4 percent. This figure deviated from the anticipated rate of 3.5 percent. The number of unemployed individuals in the country saw a rise of 440,000, bringing the total to 6.1 million in May.
Despite the increase in unemployment, both the labor force participation rate (62.6 percent) and the employment-population ratio (60.3 percent) remained unchanged last month. President Joe Biden hailed his administration's accomplishments in job creation, stating that over 13 million jobs have been generated since he assumed office. He highlighted that this surpasses the job creation of any president during a full four-year term in just 28 months. Biden further noted that the unemployment rate has remained below 4 percent for 16 consecutive months, a feat not witnessed since the 1960s.
Additionally, the president pointed out positive trends in inflation. He stated that the annual inflation rate has decreased for ten consecutive months and is currently down over 40 percent since last summer. In April, the annual consumer inflation rate stood at 4.9 percent, marking the smallest 12-month increase since April 2021. This figure represents a significant decline from the 9.1 percent increase recorded in June of the previous year, which had been the highest since November 1981.
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