Economists — And The President — React To May Jobs Report On Twitter

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 223,000 jobs in May, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, marking the country's 92nd straight month of employment gains.

The unemployment rate fell to 3.8%, its lowest since April 2000. The unemployment rate had been at 4.1% for six consecutive months before hitting 3.9% in April.

Employment was up in several real estate-related industries, including retail, construction and healthcare.

Retail trade added 31,000 jobs in May and has added 125,000 jobs over the year. Employment in construction was up by 25,000 in May and has risen by 286,000 over the past 12 months. Nonresidential specialty trade contractors added 15,000 jobs over the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.

Employment in healthcare rose by 29,000 in May, including 6,000 jobs in hospitals.

President Donald Trump broke with tradition and tweeted that a positive jobs report was forthcoming more than an hour before it was released.

Looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 1, 2018

This drew consternation from several people, including former White House officials like Ari Fleischer and Austan Goolsbee.

Here's how economists and others reacted to the jobs report on Twitter:

Payrolls +223k.

April revised down a tad, March revised upa bit, and so revisions add another +15k.

Unemployment down again to 3.8%.

Hourly earnings +2.7% over the year.

The economy keeps on keeping on. A 9-year recovery continues, and it's now in a pretty good place.
— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) June 1, 2018

Another strong jobs report! Unemp down to 3.8% (and, at 3.75, just missed 3.7); black unemp to all time low of 5.9% (full emp helps minorities!). Upside surprise on jobs. Even a small wage pop for non-supervisory workers, but that's still a weak point.
— Jared Bernstein (@econjared) June 1, 2018

With jobless rate at 18-year low, employers reaching deeper into workforce: high school grad unemployment rate falls sharply, long-term unemployed getting hired, even involuntary part-timers declining slowly. #jobsreport
— Chris Rugaber (@ChrisRugaber) June 1, 2018

The unemployment rate is now *lower* than during the dotcom boom, though the labor force participation rate remains considerably lower than it was back then.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) June 1, 2018

So much for the "retail apocalypse." Retailers add 30k jobs, fifth straight month of growth. pic.twitter.com/n0zLDjX8ym
— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman) June 1, 2018

Not unusual, but a pretty clean illustration of how the modern economy works in today's jobs numbers

`10x as many services jobs as manufacturing jobs added
(171K vs 18K)
— Michael Madowitz (@mikemadowitz) June 1, 2018

ICYMI, Here's a summary of todays #jobsreport: The jobs numbers are good, BUT WAGES ARE NOT. pic.twitter.com/zh5mT2OO4u
— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) June 1, 2018

Unemployment rates remain much higher for black and Hispanic workers than for white workers, but black workers saw a precipitous fall in their unemployment rate in May. Only time will tell whether that's a statistical anomaly or a promising trend. pic.twitter.com/x9Xr5JKVVV
— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) June 1, 2018