Surprisingly strong US jobs report — adding 272,000 jobs in May — stokes immigration controversy
NY Post
The American labor market continues to show surprising strength — and the latest numbers are sparking fresh controversy over the role of immigration.
The US economy added a whopping 272,000 jobs last month — far more than the 180,000 jobs that economists had expected — and some commentators say the continued influx of migrants over the US-Mexico border is a key reason for the upside.
“There’s an immigration piece to this,” CNBC’s senior economics reporter Steve Liesman said on Friday morning after the numbers were released.
“There are bodies available, and there is work for them to do,” Liesman said. “Whether or not they’re here legally or not is a different story.”
The Labor Department’s data for May showed that while the number of native-born workers in the US dropped by 300,000 versus a year ago to 130.4 million, the number of foreign-born workers rose by 637,000 from last year to 30.9 million.
News of the robust hiring sent stocks tumbling early Friday trades as it makes it less likely that the Federal Reserve will slash interest rates anytime soon. In addition to the blowout payroll numbers, wages rose an unexpectedly strong 4.1%.
