If there was some hope that in April the trend of the US adding low-quality (as in low-paying) jobs may finally be coming to an end, this came to a quick end in May, when more than half of the 217K jobs added were in the lowest paying sectors. Specifically:
- Education and health: +63K
- Leisure and Hospitality: +39K
- Temp Help Services: +14K
These three lowest paying categories amount to 116K, or well over half of the total jobs gains. What's more, if there was some hope for a construction renaissance in April after 34K jobs were added in the sector, in May this too came to a grinding halt after only 6K construction jobs were added. The best paying jobs: financials and information, also deteriorated, with fins adding 3K in May, half of the April gain, while 5K Information jobs were outright lost in the past month, compared to a gain of 1K jobs.
The good news, if any: retail jobs did not make up the fluff of job gains as they have in the past, with just 12.5K retail jobs added in May, and finally: all that channel stuffing appears to be paying off finally as 10K manufacturing jobs were added in the month, up from 4K in April.
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Is there any wonder why then with jobs such as these, both nominal hourly earnings:
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And especially real earnings (which just declined in April):
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... can't catch a sustainable break?