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Friday, May 06, 2005
Strong, Widespread Job Growth Surprises Analysts
In contrast to a number of recent disappointing reports on the economy, last month's job market performance was surprisingly upbeat. According to the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment grew by 274,000, easily beating forecasters' expectations of gains of around 170,000. Furthermore, job gains for February and March were revised up by a combined amount of 93,000.
With these additions, the average monthly growth of payrolls over the past year has been 181,000. While this rate of job growth is less robust than during past recoveries (monthly employment growth over a comparable period in the last recovery was over 300,000 according to the Economic Policy Institute) it is at least strong enough to keep pace with population growth. Even though businesses are adding more jobs (a sign of increased demand and profits), workers are not necessarily benefiting with higher wages.
Read EPIs Senior Economist Jared Bernstein's analysis
Posted by Adam Hughes
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