The Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls rose by just 54,000 in May, far below expectations for a gain of more than 150,000, and the jobless rate rose from 9.0 percent to 9.1 percent, adding to the recent gloom about the U.S. economy that, with each new report, appears to have entered a “soft patch” or, perhaps, something more serious.
Forecasts for job growth in May had been lowered after Wednesday’s survey from ADP showed only 38,000 private sector jobs created last month, however, even the new downwardly revised estimates were overly optimistic and total downward revisions to prior months data of 39,000 only adds to the concern about slowing growth in the U.S.
The jobless rate ticked back up above nine percent for the first time since December when it sat at 9.4 percent after more than a yearlong march down from the high of 10.1 percent in late 2009, but the broader U-6 measure of unemployment – including marginally attached and part-time workers – fell from 15.9 percent to 15.8 percent.
By category, it was an abysmal showing for all but accountants and computer system designers (within the Professional and Business Services category) along with healthcare workers as the healthcare industry continues to be a steady creator or jobs through good times and bad. Also within the Professional and Business Services category, temporary jobs fell for the second straight month, confirming the overall labor market weakness.
Government payroll declines of 29,000 were paced by a loss of 28,000 at the local level as budget cuts continue to take a toll and the Leisure and Hospitality sector lost 6,000 jobs while Manufacturing employment fell by 5,000.
The relatively small Mining and Logging category was one of the few bright spots last month with 6,000 jobs added, employment in this area now up just over 10 percent from a year ago due to the recent natural resource boom.
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Sorry, this doesn’t pass the smell test. I count 150K jobs lost across the categories and then the government magically comes up with over 200K “birth-death” jobs. I think the BS dept. is abusing that fantasy adjustment. These are the same fools that claim no inflation, or that they killed Osama bin Laden.
Remember that the B/D adjustments are for the un-adjusted data which, for May, was a gain of 682,000 in nonfarm payrolls (yes, hiring is very seasonal – we lost about three million jobs in January, as we do every year, but, for obvious reasons, that is not the data that is widely reported).
Start with 682,000 new jobs in May, add in the birth/death adjustment, then do the seasonal adjustment and you get +54,000.
[...] Tim Iacono [...]
[...] week for economic news. This morning we learned that unemployment is up to 9.1% and only 54,000 jobs were created last month — a third of what we need just to have jobs for people who are new to [...]