June 10

6/10 – The U.S. employment situation bounced back in May with 272,000 net new jobs - more than half coming from industries that are still staffing up: healthcare, government, and hospitality. As impressive, average pay was up 0.4% from April and is now 4.1% above a year ago. Wage gains continue to exceed inflation gains, which is likely to support consumer spending and GDP growth for the balance of the year. The bad news is that the Fed is not likely to lower interest rates anytime soon, which means payments for new mortgages, cars, and credit cards will continue to cost more. Also, the May unemployment rate rose from 3.9% to 4.0%. Economists think our population stats have not caught up to the influx of immigrants, distorting the percentage of people out of work. However, jobs in tech, finance, retail, info services, and business services are all down – and new college grads are also finding it harder to get started.