The US economy added 559,000 jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 5.8% in May, the Department of Labor announced Friday in a statement.
The market estimate for nonfarm payrolls was an increase of 650,000, while job additions for April were revised up by 12,000, from 266,000 to 278,000, according to data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The unemployment rate decreased to 5.8% in May, compared to an estimate of 5.9%. It stood at 6.1% in April.
The number of unemployed individuals in the US declined to 9.3 million in May, down from 9.8 million the previous month.
Despite the positive figures, the labor market is still weak in the country, and the Federal Reserve may have to wait longer to raise interest rates until it recovers and full employment is reached.
"Among those not in the labor force who currently want a job, the number of persons marginally attached to the labor force, at 2.0 million, changed little in May but is up by 518,000 since February 2020," the statement said.
Due to COVID-19, more than 22 million people in the world's largest economy lost their jobs in March and April 2020.
President Joe Biden said the positive jobs data report is a result of his administration's fiscal policies.
"None of this success is an accident," he told in a video conference from Rehoboth Beach in the state of Delaware.
"It isn’t luck. It’s due in no small part to the cooperation of the American people, and it’s due in no small part to the bold action we took with the American Rescue Plan," as he referred to the massive $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan the Democrats passed in March.
More jobs have ever been created in the first four months in any presidency in modern history, said the president, noting that it is triple the rate of his predecessor Donald Trump.
"This is progress that’s pulling our economy out of the worst crisis in the last 100 years," the president said.
Biden said American economy is expected to grow between 3%-4% this year, according to independent experts, adding Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) increased the projection for US economic growth to 6.9% in 2021.
"That's the fastest pace in nearly four decades," Biden said./aa
