Despite an increase of 139,000 jobs in May, U.S. employers slowed down their hiring.
While that is higher than the forecast for 133,000 jobs, it is down from 147,000 employees in April, according to the Ministry of Labor data. It also lowered March and April data by 95,000 jobs.
The U.S. Department of Labor said the biggest benefit is the healthcare industry adding 62,000 jobs. The second is the leisure and hospitality industry, with an increase of 48,000, of which 30,000 are engaged in food services.
The social services sector followed suit, adding about 16,000 jobs. The federal government has signed 22,000 jobs.
Industry sectors including manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehouses have little change as expected spending slows.
The unemployment rate is stable at 4.2%. Salary ticking. Average wages increased by 15 cents or 0.4%.
"The job market is stable but certainly lags behind. Monthly job growth is being regulated, and most people's earnings are always lowered, not slightly lower. Indeed, monthly job growth appears to be at 100,000 after the revision," Mark Zandi, Mocky Zandi, chief economist at Mocky Analytics, told Al Jazeera.
“It (the Employment Report) does show the job market and the economy is becoming increasingly fragile as the impact of the global trade war grows.”
Private wages also fell this month, according to a report by payroll company ADP on Wednesday, which showed that the U.S. economy added only 37,000 jobs, the lowest in two years. Unlike the Labor Department report that is a few weeks behind, the report is more direct.
"After a strong start to the year, hiring lost momentum," Nela Richardson, ADP's chief economist, said in a press release.
The ADP report is particularly noteworthy about a group of industries with net unemployment. The net loss for manufacturing was 3,000. Natural resources and mining industries lost 5,000. These losses in the commodity sector were offset by the gains of 6,000 construction work.
The only substantial gains are the leisure and hospitality sector, a notorious low-paying sector that adds 38,000, according to the ADP. Financial services then gained growth, adding 18,000 jobs. However, these gains were offset by losses, including 13,000 jobs cuts in education and health. The trade and transportation and utilities sectors laid off 4,000 jobs.
Last month, the ADP report showed an increase of 62,000 jobs, compared to the Department of Labor’s 147,000, as it is considered a more direct measure.
On Tuesday, the job openings and labor movement survey or shock report, which captured a large number of lagging data from the Ministry of Labor and ADP, showing 7.4 million public jobs in April, up from about 191,000 in the previous month.
Elise Gould, senior economist at the Institute of Economic Policy, said just because jobs are open doesn’t mean they are being filled.
"I think it reflects the caution of employers and workers," Gould told Al Jazeera.
While job openings have increased in areas such as trade, transportation and utilities, recruitment has actually decreased.
This is because major employers have implemented slowdowns in employment and intersectoral freezes.
American Airlines reportedly freezes the recruitment of flight attendants in April amid uncertainty in the travel market. Financial services firm T Rowe Price slowed down hiring. The university has established a recruitment freeze amid slowing research grants, and the recent Johns Hopkins University is currently conducting 600 NIH-funded medical research projects.
As Al Jazeera previously reported, small businesses said they had to implement a hiring freeze as tariffs were imminent.
Hiring hiring for small businesses has dropped 4.4% compared to this time last year, a payroll service provider with more than 150,000 small businesses and about 3.8 million workers, according to Homebase.
To predict expectations in the job market, Epi's Gould recommends close observation of key metrics, including housing starts and factory orders, suggesting that manufacturers and construction companies will need to lay off jobs if the trend continues.
"Certain government data, like Jobs and Shock Reports, take longer to see the trouble to catch that turning point, and you might see it in other measures, but there is a lot of volatility in it," Gould said.
In April, residential construction fell by 0.9%, the third month of the third consecutive month of decline, indicating that both builders and consumers are wary of building new homes and improving. Meanwhile, orders for goods made by U.S. factories fell 3.7% in April, according to the Census Bureau.