On paper, the May jobs report delivered another encouraging headline, with 172,000 jobs added to the economy and an unchanged unemployment rate of 4.3%. Additionally, job growth appeared to be more widespread than in the previous two months when healthcare dominated all gains. In May, leisure and hospitality jobs led the pack in growth, followed by government and healthcare, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But beneath the surface, economists say the labor market is showing a tale of two realities, where the economy is continuing to create jobs while workers who have been laid off or are new to the labor force—such as recent college grads—are finding it harder to actually land one. Overall, the share of unemployed people who have been out of work for 27 weeks or more rose to 27.5% last month, up from 20.4% a year ago. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates between the ages of 22 and 27 is 5.6%, higher than the overall unemployment rate.

Laura Ullrich, director of economic research at job searching platform Indeed, attributes this labor market contradiction to a decrease of people who are leaving their jobs as well as an overall layoff rate that has been relatively unchanged from month-to-month. Ullrich acknowledged that certain sectors like media and tech have been hit hard with job cuts, but she said that if you look at things “from a macro picture for the whole economy, layoffs are very low.”

“People are kind of hugging onto the jobs........

© Forbes