The Gallup Good Jobs (GGJ) rate rose to 45.5% last month, a slight increase from April's 44.9% and the highest rate for May since Gallup began measuring it in 2010.
The GGJ average rate for the first five months of 2016 is 44.8% — 0.7 percentage points higher than the average for the five-month start to 2015 and more than a full point higher than the January-May averages for any of the previous five years,
Gallup reported.
The growth of the monthly rate and of the rate for the year so far suggests an underlying increase in full-time work beyond the seasonal changes in employment.
“Almost halfway through the year, employment in the U.S. is on an upward trajectory that goes beyond any seasonal fluctuations. Gallup's Job Creation Index, which measures worker perceptions of hiring activity at their place of employment, is also at the high point in its eight-year trend,” Gallup’s Jim Norman explained.
The GGJ metric tracks the percentage of U.S. adults, aged 18 and older, who work for an employer full time — at least 30 hours per week. Gallup does not count adults who are self-employed, work fewer than 30 hours per week, are unemployed or are out of the workforce as payroll-employed in the GGJ metric.
Fewer Americans applied for jobless aid last week, the third straight drop in a sign that the job market remains healthy despite a recent slowdown in hiring, the
AP reported.
Weekly applications for unemployment aid dipped 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 267,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell to 276,750.
Applications are a proxy for layoffs, so the decline in jobless aid suggests that companies are confident enough to hold onto their workers. When layoffs are low, hiring is usually steady.
Employers added 160,000 jobs in April, a slowdown from prior monthly job growth that averaged more than 200,000. Economists say that the government jobs report being released Friday will show job growth in May at roughly the same pace as in April.
U.S. businesses added 173,000 jobs last month, lifted by strong gains in services industries, according to a private survey by payroll processor ADP.
Meanwhile, U.S.-based employers announced in May the fewest layoffs in five months as job cutting fell significantly across several sectors, according to a private survey released Thursday.
Planned payroll reductions totaled 30,157 last month, marking a 27 percent decline from the year ago period and the lowest total since December, according to outplacement firm
Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
"May could be the start of a summer slowdown in the pace of job cutting as companies take a pause following the period of heavy downsizing that started the year," CEO John A. Challenger said in a statement.
Companies typically reduce the pace of layoffs in the summer as managers assess strategies initiated in the first quarter, and as they go on vacation, Challenger noted.
(Newsmax wire services contributed to this report).
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