Economy adds 280K jobs; jobless rate rises

The U.S. economy added a strong 280,000 jobs in May, as employers remained confident despite a contraction in growth earlier this year.

The unemployment rate ticked up a tenth of a percentage point to 5.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, as 397,000 more workers jumped back into the market.

{mosads}The economy shrank 0.7 percent in the first three months of the year and pulled the reins on what had been solid jobs growth, averaging above 200,000 jobs a month.

But since then, the market has shown signs of life with employers pushing through the brutal winter.

Friday’s numbers come amid President Obama’s intensive efforts to sell his own party on legislation that would streamline passage of massive trade deals in Congress.

Jason Furman, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said the White House is continuing its push for expanded trade, more transportation spending and boosting wages for U.S. workers.

“The president is committed to extending the positive underlying trends through a comprehensive agenda to boost employment and wages for the middle class, including opening new markets for U.S. goods and services through expanded trade, increasing investments in infrastructure, providing relief from the sequester and raising the minimum wage,” Furman said in a statement.

Furman said employers have added 5.6 million jobs in the past two years, the best two-year job growth since 2000.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who is leading Republican efforts on trade promotion authority, or fast-track, called the latest jobs figures “a good report.”

“We know that to have a healthy economy, American workers need to be competing on a more level playing field,” he said in a statement.

“That means we need to tear down barriers to American exports, fix our broken tax code and remove obstacles to hiring like Obamacare.”

But the AFL-CIO, which is opposed to giving the president fast-track authority, argued that the trade deficit is at fault for holding back more robust growth.

“The trade deficit continues to be a drag on economic growth and employment, and that is only likely to worsen if Congress fast tracks approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, potentially forcing another bad trade deal on the American people,” said Thea Lee, the AFL-CIO’s trade economist and deputy chief of staff.

The House could take up the trade legislation next week.

Economists are forecasting 3 percent growth this year, leaving behind a dismal January-March quarter.

In 2014, the economy added an average 260,000 jobs a month, the best performance since 1999. But from February through April, the labor market cooled amid severe winter weather, a surge in the value of the dollar and falling oil prices, pushing down average growth to 190,000 a month.

March’s numbers were revised up to 119,000 from 85,000, while April’s dropped to 221,000 from 223,000.

Construction companies added 17,000 jobs with those numbers expected to remain strong, especially as the housing market kicks into a higher gear in the summer.

Meanwhile, manufacturing, which has shed jobs along with the surge in the dollar’s value and a West Coast ports strike, gained 7,000 positions last month.

— Last updated at 9:44 a.m.