The highly anticipated non-farm employment data of the US economy in May is out and the numbers showed the number of jobs grew slightly more than what predicted by economists, with the increased unemployment rate seen as a sign more people are now on the job hunt.
Releasing the data an hour before trading opens on the New York Stock Exchange, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics stated there were about 175,000 jobs added in May, a few thousands more than the consensus of economists, with professional and business services leading the most number of jobs created, followed by the leisure and hospitality sector, and retail segment.
May’s nonfarm payroll data was much anticipated as talks of US Federal Reserve tapering its bond buying programme on account of the US economy full recovering left the capital markets falling in recent days.
Dow Jones Industrial Index, however, kicked off at the start of trading and gained 1%, NASDAQ rose 0.9%, and the S&P index jumped 1% as analysts regard the data good enough to mean a steady growth but not so much as to put an end to the Fed’s $85-billion-a-month bond purchases.
The US Government continued to cut jobs and last May reduced its jobs by 3,000, having shed 12,000 and 8,000 in March and April, respectively.
The number of people unemployed increased from 7.5% in April to 7.6% in May equivalent to about 11.8 million jobless individuals in the American soil, and nearly a quarter of that are from ages 16 to 19 years old.
But according to an analyst quoted by the Financial Times, the market is less concerned about the specifics of the report than the general impact it will have on the Federal Reserves’ future actions.
Forbes quoted one economist as saying talks on the slowing down of the bond buying activity will likely to stay on the table as the jobs data does not exactly mean the economy is “booming.”