Unemployment is up.
Alicia Wallace, 6-2-2023, a senior writer for CNN Business covering the economy and topics such as cannabis. "The US economy added 339,000 jobs last month, soaring past expectations — again," CNN, https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/02/economy/may-jobs-report-final/index.html ---ML
However, the sizable jump in the unemployment rate was also a surprise, rising to 3.7% from 3.4%. Economists polled by Refinitiv had expected it to edge up by only a percentage point.
The surge in the jobless rate — the largest monthly leap since the early days of the pandemic and, before that, November 2011 — was driven by people who lost their jobs permanently and those who completed a temporary job, BLS data shows. The labor force participation rate held steady in May at 62.6%, while the prime age participation rate, for workers between the ages of 25 and 54, rose to 83.4%, which is the highest since January 2007.
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That data also shows that it may be taking longer for people to find work: The number of people unemployed for 15 to 26 weeks jumped by 179,000 to 858,000.