Employment Continued to Climb in May --- Jobless Rate Held Steady At 4.3% as 296,000 Jobs Were Added to Payrolls
WASHINGTON -- Last month's robust job gains signal that economic growth in the second quarter -- even amid a trade-damping Asian financial crisis -- might not be slowing as much as economists previously believed.</br></br>The unemployment rate stayed at its 28-year low of 4.3% of the work force in May, suggesting that April's drop was no aberration. The economy added 296,000 jobs in May, the Labor Department said. For the past six months, job gains have averaged 257,000 a month and the labor market has been taut.</br></br>Wage gains were also healthy during May. Average hourly earnings for nonsupervisory workers increased four cents to a seasonally adjusted $12.73. Average weekly earnings increased 0.9% to $441.73. Average weekly earnings and average hourly earnings have both risen 4.3% during the past year -- without many signs of inflationary pressures.</br></br>The economy, though slowing from the 4.8% gross-domestic-product growth rate posted in the first quarter, still continues to generate jobs. Certainly, the Asian financial crisis has had an effect. The manufacturing sector has slowed its rate of growth in the second quarter, and manufacturing jobs declined 26,000 last month, the third drop in the past four months. Those declines, however, were offset by the brisk-paced service sector, which accounted for all of May's job gains. Business services, retail trade and financial sectors all boosted their payrolls in May.</br></br>"This shows that overall we can weather shifts in the economy," said Labor Secretary Alexis Herman, who used the manufacturing fall-off to underscore the importance of the International Monetary Fund's proposed Asian relief package. "We need to support it" to keep the Asian situation from worsening, Ms. Herman said.