Health

Economists say May jobs report is promising but likely not entirely accurate

BOSTON — The May jobs report shows encouraging signs for the economy. The unemployment rate fell to 13.3%, down 1.4 from April, but one economist Boston 25 News spoke to says those numbers may not be as good as they seem.

“It’s good news it’s just not as good as it looks,” Milton Ezrati, Chief Economist for Vested said.

Ezrati says while May’s jobs report is encouraging the numbers may not be accurate especially the part that says the country added 2.5 million jobs.

“We had over 40 million Americans who had applied in the previous few weeks for unemployment insurance. That would have been an unemployment rate of about 20%. Against that 40 million who have been claiming, you’re telling me that 2.5 million many found jobs? No, I’m skeptical,” he said.

Ezrati says the room for error comes from the fact that the jobs report is based on a survey.

“Literally the Labor Department gets on the phone and calls employers, calls households and says are you working? Are you looking for work? I do think the numbers can often be off,” he said.

But Ezrati says even if the numbers are half as good as what’s reported, it’s still a sign in the right direction.

“Even given that I’ve said they overstate, it gives us hope that we could avoid a recession,” he said.

That’s good news for college graduates.

“I’ve been seeing a lot of freezes and a lot of halts,” Allison Gaines said.

Gaines graduated from UMass Amherst last month. She’s struggling to find a job in the art world as many of her contacts no longer have jobs themselves. But the young professional is remaining hopeful.

“For a while, I was kind of upset that all these connections I had kind of fell to the side because they don’t know where their futures will go right now. I think once I was able to make peace with that loss, I was more excited for this future,” she said.

Ezrati says whether the numbers are overstated or not, the jobs reports show that businesses are bringing back furloughed workers instead of permanently downsizing meaning grads will eventually start seeing job opportunities just a little later than they expected.

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