Hiring by U.S. Employers Remains Steady in May

U.S. job growth remained fairly steady in May and the unemployment rate was unchanged. Employers added 139,000 workers to payrolls in May 2025, according to a survey of businesses by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those additions were down from the 147,000 jobs added in April but were above the roughly 125,000 to 130,000 job gains expected by economists. However, job gains from March and April were revised down by 65,000 and 30,000, respectively, equating to 95,000 fewer positions added than previously reported. The Education/Health Services sector (+87,000 jobs) added the most jobs in May, while notable job loss was seen in Manufacturing (-18,000 jobs) and Other Servies (-8,000 jobs). The only other major industries to lose jobs during May were Mining/Logging (-1,000 jobs) and Government (-1,000 jobs). However, the Federal Government subsector continued to lose jobs, which was down 22,000 jobs in May. That contributed to the net loss of 56,000 Federal Government jobs since January, largely driven by the Department of Government Efficiency initiatives. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate (U3 or headline unemployment rate, which is seasonally adjusted, and is a survey of households) has registered in the narrow range of 4% to 4.2% over the past 13 months and has remained unchanged at 4.2% since March.  

This post is part of a series analyzing employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For more on this data, read previous posts on Job Growth.