June 06, 2005 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

May 2005 payroll employment

Total nonfarm employment edged up by 78,000, seasonally adjusted, in May 2005 after an increase of 274,000 in the prior month. Payroll job growth averaged 176,000 over the 2 months, in line with the monthly average of 184,000 over the 12 months ending in March.

[Chart data—TXT]

In May, health care and construction continued to add jobs, while employment in most other industries was little changed. Health care employment grew by 26,000. Offices of physicians and hospitals accounted for most of the job gain. Over the year, the health care industry added 233,000 jobs.

Construction employment continued to grow in May, increasing by 20,000. Within this industry, a gain of 26,000 jobs among residential specialty trade contractors more than offset a loss of 16,000 among nonresidential contractors. Job growth in heavy construction continued in May; employment in the industry has increased by 34,000 since its recent low point in February 2004.

These data are from the BLS Current Employment Statistics program. To learn more about recent employment trends, see "The Employment Situation: May 2005" (PDF) (TXT), news release USDL 05-965. Data for the most recent two months are preliminary.