US economy added 139,000 jobs in May as labour market weakens

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The US economy added 139,000 jobs in May, beating expectations but still signalling that the labour market in the world’s biggest economy is weakening.

Friday’s figure from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was below the downwardly revised 147,000 posts added in April but above the 126,000 predicted by economists polled by Bloomberg.

The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2 per cent.

The number of jobs in the federal government continued to slide amid a cost-cutting effort by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, led until last week by billionaire Elon Musk.

Treasury bond yields edged higher after the data publication as traders marginally cut back expectations of interest rate cuts this year. Futures markets now expect two further reductions, with a small chance that the US Federal Reserve could move just once in the remainder of 2025.

On Tuesday, after separate data pointed to lacklustre private-sector hiring, US President Donald Trump lashed out at Fed chair Jay Powell, calling on him to lower interest rates.

S&P 500 futures extended gains, trading 0.8 per cent higher.

The OECD warned this week that the global economy was heading into its weakest period of growth since the Covid-19 pandemic as Trump’s trade war weighs on the world’s top economies.

This is a developing story