Jobs report: These sectors fueled May’s job surge

The May US jobs report came in hotter than expected, with 272,000 jobs added to the economy. Yahoo Finance’s Alexandra Canal, Madison Mills, and Anjalee Khemlani join the Morning Brief to dissect the sectors that witnessed the most robust job gains during the month.

The retail sector experienced a notable uptick, adding 13,000 jobs to its workforce. Within this segment, building material, garden equipment, and supply dealers led the charge, contributing 12,000 new jobs, while department stores saw a decline of approximately 5,000 positions.

The healthcare industry created a significant number of jobs, adding 68,000 new roles in May. The ambulatory sector, which includes outpatient care facilities, witnessed the most significant gains with 43,000 new jobs — reflecting the industry’s push toward alternative and outpatient care models. Hospitals contributed to this growth by adding 15,000 positions.

The leisure and hospitality sector saw an increase of 42,000 jobs, a development that could potentially influence the Federal Reserve’s decision on potential interest rate cuts as services inflation has been a persistent headwind for the central bank’s monetary policy decisions.

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This post was written by Angel Smith

Video Transcript

The US added 272,000 jobs in May.

Far more than the 180,000 that was expected the sectors with the most job gains included health care, leisure and hospitality.

And we’ve got team coverage to break down the hottest sectors.

Alexandra now, Madison Mills and Angelli Klane tracking the gains.

Ali let’s start with you and the jump that we’re seeing in retail jobs.

Yeah, the BLS calling out retail trade in the report, we did see trends continue to edge higher with 13,000 jobs added in the month of May.

Now that’s roughly in line with the average monthly gain over the prior 12 months when we saw the retail sector at 8000 jobs now within retail, building material and garden equipment along with supply dealers added 12,000 jobs in May while job has occurred in department stores, about 5000 losses there and then furniture and home furnishing retailers that also saw a loss of jobs by about 4000 on a year over year basis.

The unemployment rate for wholesale and retail trade did take down to 3.7% on a yearly basis.

That’s down from the 4.4% seen in May 2023.

Of course, it’s been a bit of a mixed bag for so far.

This year, we’ve seen, we’ve seen increased layoffs across the sector while the US consumer has showed signs of slowing.

Story continues

We got that retail sales report for the month of April flat in the month.

So the consumer not unstoppable as we once thought later this month, we will see the pulse of consumers when it comes to retail for May.

But again, jobs still continued to be added 13,000 jobs for retail trade in May.

All right, thanks.

Let’s go over and, and taking a look at the health care industry.

What are you seeing there?

Huge gain there?

Of course, you know, with the average monthly gain of 64,000 jobs over the last 12 months, we’ve also seen that the total number 68,000 in the last month, 50 compared to 56,000 April.

So a huge gain there, most of the gain ambulatory 43,000, which is the biggest number going to focus on that in a second and then hospital adding 15,000 and nursing homes adding just 11,000.

Interesting to see that number there because we know about the demand for the aging population.

We’ve seen those, those demand for the health care services post pandemic and we know that there is a majority now insured population, whether through Medicare, Medicaid or commercial and So we’ve seen that push to demand in those non hospital settings.

And that is coinciding with the increase in telehealth and increase in retail as well as subscription type models like Amazon’s one.

But we’ve also seen weakness on that retail side companies like Walmart, Walgreens and Dollar General ending their health care efforts in the past year.

So that is going to create a bit of a shuffle in where these professionals are going.

The numbers also hide the fact that the sector continues to see high attrition from burnout health care professionals seeking more work life balance in alternate care settings.

But that doesn’t hide the fact that we we do see this ongoing push into the alternate care and to that outpatient setting.

That’s why those ambulatory numbers continue to be so high.

And so we have to keep an eye on how all this pans out for the the upcoming month.

And then we know that there’s also seasonality during the winter months, increase of the respiratory virus season.

So all of that playing a role in how we’re seeing this pan out all hugely important.

Thanks so much Angeli Matty, leisure and hospitality was unchanged.

You’re tracking that in the month, but it had a huge gain in May, right?

Yeah, Brad.

So this is going to be a critical, critical thing to watch for the Federal Reserve, right?

Because we know the demand for services has been a key factor in inflation.

So this is a really big move to the upside here.

We had 42,000 jobs added in the leisure and hospitality space for the month of May.

Now, this could be seasonality, right.

Think about as you head into the summer.

Obviously, there’s gonna be a lot of hiring in the hospitality and leisure sectors.

But whether or not this is a sign of too much growth that’s going to fuel inflation could be an issue for the fed back to you, Sean and Brad.

All right, Mattie and, and Ali, thanks so much for breaking that down some of the action that we’re seeing across the board when it comes to those gains.