U.S. Added 175,000 Jobs in May; Jobless Rate Rises to 7.6%
Last edited Fri Jun 7, 2013, 10:04 AM - Edit history (1)
Source: New York Times
American employers added 175,000 jobs in May, almost exactly the average monthly job growth over the last year, the Labor Department reported Friday, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 7.6 percent from 7.5 percent in April. Economists were relieved that the numbers weren’t worse, given a string of other disappointing data in recent weeks, but noted that recent job trends are nowhere close to bringing the country back to full employment. At the current pace of job growth, it would take nearly five years to get the economy back to the low unemployment rate it enjoyed when the recession officially began in December 2007.
“It’s a decent report, but it’s not by any means robust,” said Conrad DeQuadros, senior economist at RDQ Economics. “It’s certainly not strong enough to get the Fed to make any significant changes at its meeting in June,” he said, referring to speculation that the Federal Reserve might consider pulling back on its monetary stimulus if the jobs numbers came in strong. On the bright side, the unemployment rate rose for a good reason: More people joined the labor force, perhaps indicating that Americans who have been sitting on the sidelines feel that they finally have a chance at finding a job — although the labor force participation rate is still low by historical standards.
In a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted May 31 to June 4, nearly half of respondents – 46 percent — rated the job market in their area as very or fairly good, with a third saying that they think their local job markets will improve over the next year. The same poll found that 39 percent of respondents said that the condition of the economy was very or fairly good, the highest share saying this since President Obama took office and even since the recession began.
Despite signs of optimism from consumers, other indicators of the health of the job market have been mixed. Average weekly hours and average hourly earnings, for example, have shown little improvement in recent months, according to the Labor Department. Job gains in May were concentrated in service sectors like professional and business services, retail, and food services and drinking places. That last category has added 337,000 jobs over the past year.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/08/business/economy/us-added-175000-jobs-in-may-jobless-rate-rises-to-7-6.html
Reading on, we see that the GOP is still out to destroy the 'homeland:'
'The federal government, meanwhile, lost 14,000 jobs in May, presumably as a result of the across-the-board spending cuts, known as the sequester, implemented by Congress in March. Over the last three months, the federal government has shed 45,000 jobs, not including the furloughs that many federal employees are being placed on. The Pentagon, for example, has said that it will furlough 680,000 civilian workers starting in early July, with most workers losing about one paid day a week.'
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