The unemployment dropped to 13.3% with 2.5+ million jobs added back to our economy in May according to the jobs report released today. It was predicted by experts that May would see a loss of 8 million jobs.
Just after the report was released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the President immediately took to Twitter:
William W. Beach, Commissioner of Bureau of Labor Statistics, released the following statement "Non-farm payroll employment increased by 2.5 million in May, and the unemployment rate declined by 1.4 percentage points to 13.3 percent. These improvements in the labor market reflected a limited resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed in March and April due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it."
He added: "The decrease in unemployment in May was driven by a decline among people on temporary layoff (-2.7 million). The decline was offset slightly by increases in the number of job losers on temporary layoff, especially permanent job losers, which rose by 295,000 to 2.3 million. the number of new entrants to unemployment rose slightly in May, to 536,000 essentially returning to its March level."
The President mentioned in his 10:00 AM ET press conference, held in the White House Rose Garden with his economic team standing behind him, the addition of manufacturing jobs that have risen significantly over the last 3 years in spite of the previous administration repeatedly stating that those jobs would never come back.
The BLS reported "Manufacturing employment rose by 225,000 in May, following a decline of 1.3 million in April. The job gains in May were about equally split between the durable and nondurable goods components. Within durable goods, employment increased in motor vehicles and parts (+28,000), fabricated metal products (+25,000), and machinery (+23,000). Within nondurable goods, job gains occurred in plastics and rubber products (+30,000) food manufacturing (+25,000) and printing and related support activities (+16,000)."
Larry Kudlow, White House Economic Adviser, stepped to the podium after the President signed a bill extending deadlines for businesses that received emergency PPP loans and commented: "The key is that those that were temporarily laid off have gone back to work. 3 million some odd that is because of the reopening and the success of the President's and Vice President's mitigation policies which had been taken, now the reopening begins. Here's a footnote, the May 12th survey, the week the survey was taken, a little less than 50% of small businesses had reopened. According to the Chamber of Commerce, the most recent number in late May or early June, 79% percent of small businesses have reopened. So, we are going to see more continuous progress in the June jobs numbers when they come out."
Kudlow continued: "My friend and colleague Steven Munuchin's leadership on the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) has kept people on temporary call and furloughed but they knew they were going to come back. PPP has distributed $510 billion and has probably saved as much as 50 million jobs and overall we have extended tax rebates and other payments for 159 million Americans for nearly $275 billion. The rescue package worked it was the largest in American history. Now, we are seeing weekly unemployment claims coming down, continued claims coming down, the 13.3% unemployment rate has come down and I think, as the President has noted, that these trends will continue."
He concluded, "This was a sharp, tough, heartbreaking Pandemic contraction. It was not a typical economic contraction. It was a like a hurricane or a bad snowstorm, it was sharp and fast but they recover fast and we are beginning to see this rapid recovery, which I believe will extend well into the 3rd quarter and the 4th quarter and a big number in 2021 as we move forward with the Presidential policies of lower taxes and regulations and energy and fair and reciprocal trade deals that created phenomenal economy before the pandemic and can recreate and rebuild that phenomenal economy afterward."
The Dow has soared, at one point to 1,000+ points. Charles Payne of Fox Business has been very optimistic about the stock market rebound for the past couple of months. Charles tweeted early this morning:
