Below, EPI economists offer their initial insights on the jobs report released this morning, which showed 390,000 jobs added in May and wage growth moderating.

From EPI senior economist, Elise Gould (@eliselgould):

Read the full Twitter thread here.

In May, there were employment gains in leisure and
hospitality, professional and business services, and education and health services while there were notable losses in retail trade. pic.twitter.com/98NV5znEH6

— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) June 3, 2022

The labor market bounce back remains very strong, strikingly stronger–four years faster–than the prolonged recovery from the Great Recession. Private-sector employment is now within 0.2% of pre-pandemic levels. pic.twitter.com/98okzQv8p8

— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) June 3, 2022

No matter how you look at it, nominal wage growth is moderating this year (and decidedly not accelerating). Year-over-year wage growth ticked down from 5.5% in April to 5.2% in May as more recent trends show even slower growth. pic.twitter.com/33FTUpKAxw

— Elise Gould (@eliselgould) June 3, 2022

From EPI president, Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz):

Read the full Twitter thread here. 

Wage growth is also decelerating. Quarterly wage growth ticked down in May and has dropped substantially in recent months. 2/ pic.twitter.com/xWoahpNIqt

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) June 3, 2022

One big concern: There is still a giant gap in state and local govt jobs—they are down 634,000 since Feb ‘20, with close to half of that, 281,000, in education. It’s crucial that state and local govts use their ARPA funds to raise pay and refill those jobs. 4/

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) June 3, 2022