The US labor market is creating new jobs, but maybe not yours

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Yahoo Finance
The US labor market is creating new jobs, but maybe not yours

Myles Udland • Head of News
Tue, June 10, 2025 at 6:00 AM EDT 3 min read

Your own job is a binary event — you either have one or you don't. ..: Labor market data so closely tracked by investors offers a different story about US employment, one told in the aggregate. And reconciling the two right now has made discussion about the overall state of the US job market particularly rich.

In May, the US economy added 139,000 new jobs while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%. Data on job openings posted last week showed a surprise increase in April, though hiring demand continues to cool from post-pandemic highs. That's at least according to the US government.

Data from payroll processor ADP published last week, however, suggested there were only 37,000 roles added to the private sector, the fewest since March 2023. For recent college grads and others at the entry level of the workforce, the job market hasn't been this challenging in years.

Take this labor market data together with surveys from the services and manufacturing industries, and some economists see signs of "paralysis" forming in the US economy.

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