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WASHINGTON - The U.S. job market held up better than expected in May, as the unemployment rate fell for the first time in eight months, a report from the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed June 1, 2001.
The jobless rate eased to 4.4 percent from 4.5 percent in April. The last time the jobless rate fell was in September 2000 when the unemployment number fell to a three-decade low of 3.9 percent. The April level was the highest in 2 1/2 years.
Although the percentage of people out of work declined, trends in nonfarm payrolls remained weak. The number of workers on U.S. payrolls outside the farm sector fell by 19,000.
The report included heavy revisions to prior months' data and some methodology changes. On balance, the job picture in recent months looked stronger after the changes.
The Fed has hacked 2.5 percentage points off overnight interest rates since the beginning of this year, acting on five separate occasions in one of the most aggressive rate-reduction sprees in history to reinvigorate a flagging economy.
BLS said April payrolls fell by 182,000 - a revision from the previously reported decline of 223,000. March payrolls grew by 59,000, in contrast to the originally reported 53,000 decrease.
Workers' hourly wages grew in May by 0.3 percent to $14.26 from a revised $14.22 in April. Year-to-date, growth in hourly earnings is running at 4.3 percent compared to last year.
Construction jobs rose by 31,000 last month after a big decline of 78,000 in April that was blamed on severe weather.