U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly declined to 13.3 percent in May

DORAL, FL – U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly declined to 13.3 percent in May from 14.7 percent in April, as reported by the Department of Labor on Friday.

Among this scenario, there are also good news for the hispanic community, which unemployment rate dropped to 17.6 in May from 18.9 in April. The U.S. unemployment rate for white Americans was 12.4% in May and 16.8% for African-Americans.

According to many analysts, reopening the economy in phases, after it closed down due to the coronavirus, had a lot to do with the positive scenario we are now experimenting with U.S. unemployment rate. The economy gained 2.5 million jobs in May after months of job losses nationwide. 

About two fifths of the growth in May was driven by part-time jobs, which is “an indication of how fragile and uneven the recovery could be,” as stated by the Washington Post. 

Economists warn this is just one step forward in the journey of having the economy and job market the country used to show before the coronavirus pandemic. The recession might not be as severe as predicted, but there’s still a long way ahead and this recession might be more challenging than others.

“The idea you would see job gains and the unemployment rate falling was not something really that people were expecting,” said Jay Shambaugh, an economist at the Brookings Institution, to the Washington Post. 

“But a 13.3 percent unemployment rate is higher than any point in the Great Recession. It represents massive joblessness and economic pain. You need a lot of months of gains around this level to get back to the kind of jobs totals we used to have.” 

Yet, according to the Huffpost, the number of people applying for unemployment benefits has declined for nine straight weeks, although it will take months for all those who lost work in April and March to find jobs.

Regarding which sectors experimented the biggest gains in May, restaurants, bars and other food service employment accounted for about half the gains. Employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 1.2 million, while construction employment increased by 464,000. The health care industry also recovered 312,000 jobs between April and May.