Instant Reaction: US Adds 172,000 Jobs, Boosting Bets on Fed Rate Hike by Year-End
Bloomberg Surveillance
Bloomberg
3.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2026
⏱️ 21 minutes
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Summary
US job growth topped all forecasts in May and the unemployment rate held steady, offering the clearest sign yet that the labor market may be breaking out of a prolonged period of lackluster hiring.
Nonfarm payrolls increased 172,000 last month after upward revisions to the prior two months, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data out Friday. That marked the strongest three-month advance in more than two years.
The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.3%, and average hourly earnings rose 0.3%.
Bloomberg's Tom Keene and Paul Sweeney break down the numbers with:
Claudia Sahm, Chief Economist at New Century Advisors
Kevin Gordon, Head of Macro Research and Strategy for the Schwab Center for Financial Research at Charles Schwab
Kristina Campmany, Senior Portfolio Manager at Invesco
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| 1:02.6 | And the May unemployment report hitting the Bloomberg terminal, and it shows a big jump in the number of jobs added to this economy in the month of May. We added |
| 1:12.0 | 172,000 jobs. This is blowing away estimates of 88,000, even the whisper number, which was for |
| 1:18.9 | 99,000. And this is compared to the 115,000 jobs we added in the prior month. Going through |
| 1:25.1 | this report, we've got the unemployment rate holding steady at |
| 1:28.3 | 4.3%. That was expected. As for average hourly earnings, not much movement there at all, up 3.4%, |
| 1:34.9 | right in line with estimates, and a bit lower than the month prior when we saw that move up 3.6%. So again, |
| 1:42.2 | wages not keeping pace with inflation, which is now at 3.8%. |
| 1:46.2 | And we have got also want to take a look at the labor force participation rate, again, |
| 1:50.5 | in line with estimates at 61.8%, so unchanged from the prior month. But again, the headline number |
| 1:57.9 | here, the economy adding many more jobs than expected, 172,000 in the month |
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