Is There A Labour Shortage? What The May Jobs Report Tells Us

• The weaker-than-expected April jobs report fueled speculation of U.S. labour shortages and led some state officials to declare an early end to enhanced unemployment benefits.
• Yet forecasters hoping for clarity from the May tally may be left scratching their heads. 
• It’s hard to draw conclusions about sustained weakness or labour supply issues from the data published Friday, according to economists. The May report offers something of a mixed bag and somewhat contradictory data points, they said. 
• For example, there’s the headline number: The U.S. economy added 559,000 people to payrolls in May. On one hand, some observers may use the data point to suggest workers aren’t rejoining the labour force as quickly as one might expect. 
• The jobs figure was below economists’ estimate of 671,000. At that pace, it would take more than a year to regain all the jobs lost since February 2020.

(Source: CNBC News)