US employers added 339,000 jobs in May. So how does the unemployment rate climb to 3.7% from 3.4%? If more people got hired, how does unemployment go up? Is it not zero sum?


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Unemployment increased because of a sharp decline of 369,000 in self-employment.

Independent of US companies, people can self-employ, so the two numbers can move independently.

The unemployment rate and generally is considered more volatile than the survey of establishments used for the headline payrolls number.