By Vanessa Saunders, MBA, MIMC , Broker Owner, Global Property Systems Real Estate.

The biggest news story of the day should have been the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) employment report for May. Because of far larger stories, the May report received a smattering of coverage. That's fine, because the report surprised most economic prognosticators. It was full of unexpected GOOD news for our economy.

According to the report, employment in May was up 2.5 million jobs. The BLS report also stated, "...the unemployment rate declined to 13.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. These improvements in the labor
market reflected a limited resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed in March and April
due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it. In May, employment rose
sharply in leisure and hospitality, construction, education and health services, and retail trade. By
contrast, employment in government continued to decline sharply."

This has to be a win-win situation for the United States economy. Not only are they hiring in leisure and hospitality, construction, education, health services, and retail, but government is shrinking too. For the Hudson Valley real estate industry, the news is earth-shakingly good, because lenders don't offer mortgages to the unemployed.

Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for the National Association of Realtors last month predicted the opposite result. In a statement May 8 Yun said, "The joblessness rate is certain to be higher next month, but soon afterward it will steadily fall. How fast and for how long will be determined by the containment of the virus."

In a statement issued today about the May 2020 unemployment rate decrease, Yun said, "Employment data quickly turned for the better with surprising net job creations in May. There are still people getting laid off and filing for unemployment insurance for the first time, but job creations are exceeding that by a good margin of 2.5 million in May.”

To read all the facts and figures the BLS has broken out for us, as well as a couple nifty charts putting things into perspective, click May 2020 Employment Report. Be warned, however, that it runs to 42 PDF pages, so it may be TLDR for some.

The Employment Situation report for June is scheduled to be released on Thursday, July 2, 2020. Let's hope it will give us all another great reason to celebrate the Fourth Of July.