Jobs in the U.S. rose by 559,000 in May, below the consensus estimate for a gain of 671,000 jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 5.8% from 6.1% in April.
The sluggish economy reported could mean the U.S. Federal Reserve moves more slowly toward tapering its $120 billion in monthly bond purchases, which would be a positive development for cryptocurrency holders. For now, bitcoiners may still be able to count on the Fed bringing more liquidity to the markets through quantitative easing and giving investors the liquidity to invest more in riskier assets.
The price of bitcoin spiked on the report, regaining some of the ground it had loss overnight.
The U.S. revised April’s jobs number up to 278,000, after a long month of economists debating about how the economy only added 266,000 jobs our of an estimated 1 million in April.
The labor force participation rate – the percentage of the American population that is either working or actively looking for work – ticked down slightly to 61.6% from 61.7% in April.
The employment-to-population ratio, which measures the number of people employed against the total working-age population, changed little month-to-month at 58% from 57.9% in April, down 3.1 percentage points year-over-year.