Hiring might have slipped last month to a still-strong level

WASHINGTON (AP) — After months of robust hiring, U.S. employers might have pulled back slightly in May, to levels that would still be consistent with a healthy job market, despite high inflation and rising borrowing costs.

Economists have estimated that the nation added a solid 325,000 jobs last month, down from 428,000 in both March and April, according to forecasts compiled by FactSet, a data provider. If so, that would snap a record-breaking streak of 12 straight months in which job growth had topped 400,000. The unemployment rate is expected to slip to 3.5% — matching a half-century low — from 3.6%.

The May jobs report the government will issue Friday coincides with inflation near a four-decade high and worries about higher borrowing rates and a potential recession roiling the stock market. Yet employers remain generally optimistic. Consumers have kept up their spending despite their intensifying concerns about higher prices.

Average paychecks are rising. And households, particularly higher-income ones, have amassed unusually large savings, boosted in part by relief payments from the government after the pandemic recession struck.

In April, according to the government, there were 11.4 million job openings — an average of nearly two for every unemployed person, just below a record reached in March.

“It's been rather amazing how sustained this has been,” said Dawn Fay, senior district president at staffing firm Robert Half.

Even so, another solid month of hiring won't likely help Democratic lawmakers, who face the prospect of losing seats in Congress this fall, with chronically high inflation at the top of voters' concerns. President Joe Biden’s approval ratings have crumbled even as the unemployment rate has fallen.

American politics has entered an unusual period...