Chart of the Day: Net New Jobs in May

Here’s a surprise: after two months of massive job losses, we actually gained jobs in May:

The BLS tells us this: “The number of unemployed persons who were on temporary layoff decreased by 2.7 million.” That seems to explain things: as the economy reopened, laid off workers were called back and that accounts for the rebound in jobs. The increases came mostly in the areas of health care, retail, and hospitality (i.e., restaurants).

However, although this is good news there’s a big black cloud in the middle of it: the number of government employees shrank by nearly 600,000. Some of these workers might eventually be recalled, but unless Congress passes a rescue bill that includes aid to states and cities a lot of them will be permanently out of work. This would be a big headwind working against recovery, just as it was after the Great Recession.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate