By Don Lee | A burst of hiring of temporary census workers helped push down the
unemployment rate in May, but the nation’s private-sector employers
added a mere 41,000 new jobs last month, the Labor Department said
Friday.
The jobless rate edged down to 9.7 percent in May from 9.9 percent in
April, but that was because the federal government added 411,000 jobs
for the decade population count. Those jobs were expected and will
disappear quickly over the summer. Business payrolls increased by only 41,000 in May — a fraction of the
175,000 or so jobs that many analysts had projected. By comparison, the
nation added 218,000 new private-sector jobs in April and 158,000 in
March.
A month’s data doesn’t spell a trend, but the hiring slowdown in May is certain to raise questions about the strength of the job market and the broader economic recovery. The jobs report comes on the heel of other data that suggest a slowing in consumer spending, a key engine for the economy.
On a positive note, the nation’s manufacturing sector continued to grow in May, adding 29,000 over the month. The temporary-help industry also increased its payrolls last month by 31,000.
But the hard-hit construction sector, which had increased hiring earlier this spring, fell back in May as employers cut 35,000 positions. The health-care sector grew by just 8,000 jobs, and the other major private-sector industries showed little or no change in payrolls last month.
Some analysts were expecting soft hiring by private employers in May, among them William Dunkelberg, chief economist at the National Federation of Independent Business, which represents small employers. “Weak sales and uncertainty continue to hold back any commitments to growth, hiring or capital spending,” he said in a report released Friday after surveying member companies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s payroll grew by 431,000 last month, completely reflecting a burst of temporary census hiring by the government. Private payrolls grew at the slowest pace since the start of the year.
The unemployment rate dipped to 9.7 percent from 9.9 percent, as thousands of people left the labor force.
Hey, Trib reporters, you forgot half of the AP article!
Gov. jobs rose 411,000, private industry jobs rose 41,000 (Bloomberg)
The Tribune/Pravda – all the news they want you to know.
That’s funny – after my post, they changed the article.
Very bad and disappointing employment and economic news. Any recovery is going to have to come from the private sector and not from temporary government (census) jobs. As usual the biased press missed the main part of the story about only 41,000 new jobs were created in the Private Sector. Wake over there at the Tribune. You are supposed to be professional journalists, not Obama cheerleaders.
What a surprise that the private sector has not responded to the anit-business climate in DC. Too bad at least some of our elected political leaders aren’t trained in business and economics and instead are mostly lawyers. Looks like our country is about to get another painful lesson in supply side economics – you must create wealth before you can redistribute it. Otherwise, you just run out of other people’s money (see Greece, California, NY, IL, etc.)
Math is hard in the Tribune newsroom: 431,000 jobs were created, 411,000 were gov’t jobs. So the private sector couldn’t have created 41,000 jobs: 431K-411K= 20K
Even more infuriating (or amusing) is that the Census is making their employees “rehire” every few weeks to boost the employment numbers… except that the unemployment numbers are calculated an entirely different way (phone surveys). Unless, of course, they’re not and the administration is using control of the census to cook the numbers.
You know, Tribune interns, when you complain that journalism salaries are low, this might be why. They know you can’t add anyway.
More bad news – 322,000 dropped out of looking for a job. The unemployment number is this:
looking for job / total workforce.
If people stop looking for a job, they drop out of both numbers, but it causes the ratio to fall (ie: unemployment looks better). Net/net, the number of employed people FELL in May, even with the census bump.
This is what happens when we send community organizers and their ilk to the White House and to Congress. Incompetent governance gives you plenty of Hope and Change, but no positive results.
We need some adult supervision in Washington. Next time, please vote more responsibly.
Government jobs rose by 410,000 jobs and private sector by 40,000, as is said above, shows how Obama and his people cannot tell the truth about anything Obfuscation is their mantra, as it was when Communism began.
Say anything to cloud the issue because it takes time to check it out and people will forget believes Obama.
Now he is saying , in a bold voice, “I am furious” because he was told you must show passion. Obama cannot show passion because on a public basketball court if you show passion you better be able to back it up, and, we know, Obama is a “wuss”.
Census workers are cheating the taxpayers out of $10, 950,000 per day by lying on their time sheets about travel time, lunch hours work 6 hours charge taxpayer for 8 hours and laugh along with the Census supervisor who is prodding them to “pad their numbers”. Breitbart has documented the census thievery on a you tube video and the $10,000,000 per day is only one hour/day per census worker, it is probably many times that amount because many ACORN and SEIU employees are working for the census and we have records showing how they can be trusted.
WOW! It is time to celebrate such great numbers. I guess the white house’s “jobs programs” of finding positions so that people don’t run against their chosen candidate really did put people to work. Thank you chosen one.
It’s so sad to see continuing proof that American businesses have cut and run on the American public.
Your comment demonstrates that you have zero understanding of the problem in this economy. Do you work for the Federal government? The Democratic Party? City of Chicago? Do you have a job? Have you ever had a private sector job?
Why so angry? Did your former employer cut and run on you?