The Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, known as the jobs report, was weaker than expected for May. Nonfarm payrolls added just 138,000 new jobs for the month, below the consensus expectations of 178,000. Excluding the loss of 9,000 workers from government payrolls, the private sector added just 147,000 for May. That is well below the average of 179,000 new jobs added per month over the past year. The slowdown in job creation was widespread across most industries.
There are two competing theories on the cause of the slowdown: the United States is running out of workers, or the economy is slowing down. Those two explanations have dramatically different implications for the economic outlook.