The U.S. economy added 272,000 jobs in May according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while the unemployment rate "changed little" at 4.0 percent — the first time at this level since early 2022 — last month according to the latest employment situation report released Friday.
Gains were led by increases in health care (+68,000 jobs) and government (+43,000 jobs) — two artificial sectors driven by government action, not the job market — along with growth in leisure and hospitality jobs (+42,000), according to the BLS' establishment survey.
The BLS' household survey, however, paints a different picture in what has become a growing disparity between the two measures of America's employment situation. It shows a reduction in the civilian labor force of 250,000 between April and May and a 408,000 drop in the number of employed Americans paired with an increase in the number of individuals not in the labor force of 433,000.
House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) said Friday that the latest unemployment rate and labor force participation number has set America "even further back from pre-pandemic levels" as President Biden's economic policies fail "miserably to stabilize and grow the economy."
Arrington noted that the topline job growth numbers "are misleading" because "[r]eports show that upwards of half the job gains under Biden have come from illegal immigrants, which belies a far weaker economy than Democrats want you to believe."
In the wages vs. inflation battle that higher prices have been winning in most of the last three years since Biden took office, average hourly earnings increased 0.4 percent in May for a 12-month increase of 4.1 percent. The number of hours worked in a week on average is still at 34.3.
"President Biden's bad economy is reflected by the weak May jobs numbers," remarked Alfredo Ortiz, CEO of Job Creators Network, in a statement provided to Townhall.
"Ignore the topline establishment survey number that has shown it cannot be trusted," he warned, noting that a "new Bloomberg Economics report finds monthly job gains were overstated by 730,000 last year, and constant downward revisions mean this establishment number is essentially meaningless."
As in many employment reports over the past few years, May's print revised the previous two months downward. March had 5,000 fewer jobs and April was dropped by 10,000 jobs, meaning employment in the last two reports was 15,000 lower than initially reported.
Ortiz said Americans should "focus on the report's more accurate household survey...[t]hat shows the economy lost a massive 408,000 jobs last month. The unemployment rate increased and the labor force participation rate fell."
Even in the establishment figure that President Biden uses to brag about the supposed success of his economic policy, Ortiz emphasized that "approximately half of the new jobs created were in the unproductive government or quasi-government healthcare and social services sectors of the economy. These jobs don't generate real economic growth and increase living standards," he underscored. "Meanwhile, real wages remain stagnant, as persistent inflation makes it impossible for workers to get ahead."
"The only way to reinvigorate the American economy and labor market is by pursuing sensible economic policies that get the government out of the way of small businesses," Ortiz continued. "That means electing conservative candidates on Election Day."