{"id":5830,"date":"2026-06-05T14:25:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=5830"},"modified":"2026-06-05T14:25:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T14:25:36","slug":"the-may-jobs-report-just-blew-past-expectations-and-maybe-too-far-for-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=5830","title":{"rendered":"The May jobs report just blew past expectations\u2014and maybe too far for markets"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The labor market delivered another whopping win on Friday: 172,000 jobs in May, when economists had expected 88,000.<\/p>\n

\n

The even stronger surprise was in the rearview mirror: March was revised up by 29,000 to 214,000, April by 64,000 to 179,000. Combined, the two months were 93,000 stronger than previously reported.<\/p>\n

Though such a strong labor market is good news for those fearing the economy was stalling\u2014or that AI was eating jobs\u2014it could make investors wince. The strong print could kill what has been left of rate-cut hopes for this year, especially as inflation persists and the conflict in Iran drags on. The 10-year bond yield jumped about 6 basis points to above 4.5%.<\/p>\n

Unemployment held at 4.3%, however, where it\u2019s been parked since last July, so the report\u2019s other wildcard is defused.<\/p>\n

The job market is rebounding in 2026 after a limpish 2025. After all the revisions were said and done, the economy added roughly 10,000 jobs a month in 2025. So far in 2026, it\u2019s averaging 114,000.<\/p>\n

Under the hood, however, the hiring is still relatively concentrated. Leisure and hospitality added 70,000 jobs\u00a0 in May\u2014five times its 12-month average\u2014with restaurants and bars alone hiring 48,000. Local government added 55,000, and health care 35,000. That\u2019s the whole party. Meanwhile, financial activities cut 22,000 jobs and is down 107,000 from its peak a year ago, and transportation and warehousing has shed 92,000 since early 2025.<\/p>\n

Paychecks also don\u2019t seem to be keeping up. Average hourly earnings rose 3.4% over the year\u2014the slowest pace in four years, and below inflation running near 4%. Americans are getting hired faster and paid less, in real terms, simultaneously.<\/p>\n

Which brings us back to the economy\u2019s trap. For the Fed, which meets June 16\u201317, a labor market this resilient is yet one more reason to sit on its hands. Rates parked at 3.50%\u20133.75% mean borrowing costs\u2014particularly mortgage rates\u2014stay elevated too.<\/p>\n

\u201cRobust hiring drives household formation, keeps homebuyer demand resilient, and helps existing homeowners stay current on their mortgages,\u201d said Selma Hepp, chief economist at Cotality. \u201cOn the other hand, a hot labor market signals to the Federal Reserve that rate cuts may be delayed\u2026 higher-for-longer mortgage rates will continue to strain affordability and keep a tight lid on inventory for the rest of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#jobs #report #blew #expectationsand #markets<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The labor market delivered another whopping win on Friday: 172,000 jobs in May, when economists had expected 88,000. The even stronger surprise was in the rearview mirror: March was revised… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2519,8307,113,8308,666,176,92,430,668,166,736,91,3945,3229],"class_list":["post-5830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-analysis","tag-blew","tag-bonds","tag-expectationsand","tag-federal-reserve","tag-inflation","tag-investors","tag-jobs","tag-kevin-warsh","tag-markets","tag-report","tag-stock","tag-u-s-jobs-report","tag-wall-street"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}