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Employment up by 280,000 in May and 3.1 million over the year

June 08, 2015

Total nonfarm employment rose by 280,000 in May 2015, compared with an average monthly gain of 251,000 over the prior 12 months. Job gains in May occurred in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and health care. Over the year, total nonfarm employment increased by 3.1 million.

 
Over-the-month and over-the-year change in nonfarm payroll employment, by industry, seasonally adjusted, May 2015
Industry Employment(p) Over-the-month change(p) Over-the-year change(p) Percent of total nonfarm
employment in May 2015(p)

Total nonfarm

 141,679,000 280,000 3,058,000 100%

Education and health services

 22,001,000 74,000 592,000 15.5

Professional and business services

 19,676,000 63,000 671,000 13.9

Leisure and hospitality

 15,106,000 57,000 439,000 10.7

Retail trade

 15,632,100 31,400 314,000 11.0

Government

 21,941,000 18,000 100,000 15.5

Construction

 6,387,000 17,000 273,000 4.5

Transportation and warehousing

 4,760,600 13,100 146,500 3.4

Financial activities

 8,111,000 13,000 160,000 5.7

Nondurable goods manufacturing

 4,528,000 6,000 33,000 3.2

Wholesale trade

 5,905,400 4,100 91,000 4.2

Other services

 5,634,000 2,000 62,000 4.0

Utilities

 561,600 1,100 10,900 0.4

Durable goods manufacturing

 7,807,000 1,000 148,000 5.5

Information

 2,783,000 -3,000 60,000 2.0

Mining and logging

 845,000 -18,000 -43,000 0.6
Footnotes:

(p) preliminary.

Professional and business services added 63,000 jobs in May. Within that industry, employment increased in computer systems design and related services (10,000). Employment continued to trend up in temporary help services, management and technical consulting services, and architectural and engineering services. Over the year, employment in professional and business services rose by 671,000. 

Employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 57,000 jobs in May, following little change the prior 2 months. Employment edged up in arts, entertainment, and recreation (29,000). Over the past year, leisure and hospitality added 439,000 jobs.

Health care added 47,000 jobs in May. More than half of the increase was in ambulatory care services (28,000). Hospitals added 16,000 jobs. Over the past 12 months, health care added 408,000 jobs.

In May, employment in mining and logging decreased by 18,000. Employment in mining decreased for the fifth consecutive month (-17,000). After increasing by 41,000 jobs in 2014, employment in mining has decreased by 68,000 jobs thus far in 2015.

Employment in other major industries, including manufacturing, wholesale trade, information, and government changed little over the month.

These data are from the Current Employment Statistics program. Data for the most recent 2 months are preliminary. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation — May 2015" (HTML) (PDF). More charts featuring nonfarm employment data are in Current Employment Statistics Highlights: May 2015.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Employment up by 280,000 in May and 3.1 million over the year at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2015/employment-up-by-280000-in-may-2015-and-3-million-over-the-year.htm (visited April 19, 2024).

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