May Payrolls, Wages Up

 

The nation's employers hired 157,000 new workers in May, nearly twice as many as the previous month, while the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.5 percent, the Labor Department reported on Friday.

Payroll gains were highest in the health care and food services sectors, while the number of manufacturing jobs continued to decline, the report said.

Average hourly wages across all sectors rose six cents, or 0.3 percent, to $17.30, compared to an increase of 0.2 percent in April. At the same, the average workweek increased by 0.1 hour to 33.9 hours.

- next -