Strong hiring in May pushes unemployment rate to 18-year low

WASHINGTON (AP):

United States employers extended a streak of solid hiring in May, adding 223,000 jobs and helping lower the unemployment rate to an 18-year low of 3.8 percent from 3.9 per cent in April.

Average hourly pay rose 2.7 per cent from a year earlier, a slightly faster annual rate than in April, the Labor Department reported yesterday. But pay growth remains below levels that are typical when the unemployment rate is this low.

Still, the report shows that the nearly nine-year old economic expansion - the second-longest on record - remains on track. Employers appear to be shrugging off recent concerns about global trade disputes.

Roughly an hour before the employment data was released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, President Donald Trump appeared to hint on Twitter that a strong jobs report was coming. "Looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning," he tweeted.

The president is normally briefed on the monthly jobs report the day before it is publicly released, and he and other administration officials are not supposed to comment on it beforehand.