Dow Futures were up 650 points on a jobs report that came in much better than anyone expected, at 13.3% for the month of May. The estimates were much higher, at 19.5%, and economists had predicted a decline of more than 8 million jobs. Overall employment rose by 2.5% last month.
The stock market has been moving up this week, with the Dow up 3.5%, S&P up 2.2%, and the NASDAQ up 1.3%.
“The gulf between current headlines for Wall Street (best 50-day rally ever for the S&P 500) and Main Street (one-in-four American workers have now filed for jobless benefits) seems more extraordinary than normal,” according to one investment strategist.
Hair Twittler was at it early taking his typical credit for the news, calling his opponent names.
The addition in May was tempered somewhat by a revision in April that increased the initially reported loss by 150,000 to 20.7 million. March’s total also saw a substantial revision, from 881,000 to 1.4 million. On net, revisions added 642,000 to the already staggering job losses.
Leisure and hospitality workers made up almost half the increase last month, with 1.2 million going back to work after a reported loss of 7.5 million in April. Jobs in bars and restaurants increased by 1.4 million as states began to relax social distancing measures.
Construction was the next biggest gainer with 464,000, making up for about half of April’s losses. Education and health services rose by 424,000 and retail surged by 368,000 after plunging by 2.3 million a month previous.