Below, EPI economists offer their initial findings from the employment report released this morning, which showed 390,000 jobs were added in May and wage growth is slowing.
From EPI Senior Economist Eliza Gould (@eliselgould):
Read the full Twitter thread here.
Employment in the leisure sector increased in May and
hospitality, professional and business services, and education and health services, while there were notable losses in retail. pic.twitter.com/98NV5znEH6— Eliza Gould (@eliselgould) June 3, 2022
The labor market recovery remains very strong, strikingly stronger – four years faster – than the long recovery from the Great Recession. Employment in the private sector is now within 0.2% of pre-pandemic levels. pic.twitter.com/98okzQv8p8
— Eliza Gould (@eliselgould) June 3, 2022
No matter how you look at it, nominal wage growth is slowing (and clearly not accelerating) this year. YoY wage growth eased from 5.5% in April to 5.2% in May as recent trends show even slower growth. pic.twitter.com/33FTUpKAxw
— Eliza Gould (@eliselgould) June 3, 2022
From EPI President Heidi Schierholtz (@hshierholz):
Read the full Twitter thread here.
Wage growth is also slowing down. Quarterly wage growth slowed in May and has declined substantially in recent months. 2 / pic.twitter.com/xWoahpNIqt
– Heidi Schierholz (@hshierholz) June 3, 2022
One big problem: There is still a giant gap between state and local governments — they have fallen by 634,000 since February 20, with almost half of that, 281,000, in education. It is imperative that state and local governments use their ARPA funds to raise wages and fill those jobs. four /
– Heidi Schierholz (@hshierholz) June 3, 2022
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