The government’s closely watched jobs report comes out Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET, capping off a week that has already offered some signs of stability in the labor market.
Payrolls are expected to have grown by 85,000 in May, while the unemployment rate is seen remaining flat at 4.3%, according to estimates from economists surveyed by Bloomberg. If their prediction holds, the US will have added positions for three consecutive months, a feat the job market hasn’t managed since it began whipsawing last summer.
Data on private payroll growth from ADP already showed some strength for May: Private employers added 122,000 jobs for the month, with hiring taking place across eight of the 10 supersectors ADP tracks. A month earlier, job openings soared to 7.62 million, a sharp increase from March.
Still, hiring declined in April, federal government data showed, and the increase in openings was concentrated in the professional and business services sector. The Federal Reserve’s Beige Book for May, released Wednesday, also noted that “employment showed little to no change” in 11 of the Fed’s 12 districts.
“Most Districts described a low-hire, low-fire environment, with workers increasingly reluctant to change jobs because of economic uncertainty,” the report noted. “Hiring remained selective and primarily focused on critical roles or attrition replacement.”
