Solid payrolls gains continue in May

Washington

EMPLOYERS added 217,000 jobs in May to push US payrolls past their pre-recession peak and the jobless rate held at an almost six-year low as the economy gained traction.

The advance was broad-based and followed a 282,000 gain in April, figures from the Labour Department showed yesterday in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 215,000 increase. Unemployment in May was unchanged at 6.3 per cent.