Total nonfarm payroll employment edged up in May (+75,000), and the unemployment rate remained at 3.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment continued to trend up in professional and business services and in health care. This news release presents statistics from two monthly surveys. The household survey measures labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic characteristics. The establishment survey measures nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings by industry. For more information about the concepts and statistical methodology used in these two surveys, see the Technical ... (full story)

U.S. employers last month added the fewest workers in three months as wage gains cooled, suggesting broader economic weakness and likely boosting calls for a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut as President Donald Trump's trade policies weigh on the economy. Payrolls rose 75,000 after a downwardly revised 224,000 advance the prior month, according to a Labor Department report Friday that missed all estimates in Bloomberg’s survey calling for 175,000. The jobless rate held at a 49-year low of 3.6% while average hourly earnings climbed 3.1% from a year earlier, less than projected. The surprisingly sour data signal the ... (full story)