The latest jobs report sent mixed signals, showing joblessness ticking up after a long stretch of low unemployment while the economy added new jobs faster than expected.
The unemployment rate unexpectedly jumped to 4% last month, according to the May jobs report, released Friday by the Labor Department.
For the past 27 months, the unemployment rate had remained below 4%, the longest such stretch since the 1960s.
The unemployment rate for black Americans jumped to 6.1% from 5.6%, while for white people, the unemployment rate remained lower than the overall rate at 3.5%.
The labor force participation rate also dipped suddenly to 62.5%, mostly due to young workers between the ages of 20 and 24 abandoning the job market.
Meanwhile, the U.S. economy added jobs faster than expected last month, although much of that growth was in part-time jobs, while the number of full-time jobs has fallen. A…
