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Total nonfarm payroll employment rose in May by 175,000, and the unemployment rate increased slightly to 7.6 percent, up from 7.5 percent in April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
Over the year, the labor force participation rate has declined by 0.4 percentage point. The number of unemployed persons, at 11.8 million, was also little changed over the month.
In the retail industry, employment increased by 28,000 in May and at an average rate of 20,000 jobs per month over the past year.
“The labor market continues to show slow progress in this recovery,” said Jack Kleinhenz, National Retail Federation chief economist. “While this report was slightly better than expected, we are still concerned about growth and from where it will come. Fiscal headwinds remain in place. Job creation across retail sectors was wider in May than the previous two months, and we expect that we will gain some momentum in the second half of 2014.”
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