The US economy created fewer jobs than expected last month as jittery firms shied away from rehiring laid-off Americans, official data showed Friday, fueling fears of a jobless recovery.

In figures that fell well below expectations -- sending markets across the world plummeting -- the Labor Department said 431,000 posts were created in May, most of them temporary government jobs for this year's census.

Private-sector jobs rose by just 41,000, less than a fifth of the amount predicted by analysts.

President Barack Obama's hopes of slashing US unemployment had been expected to get a substantial boost, amid predictions that 500,000 or more jobs would be created.

Obama shrugged off the report, saying a slight drop in the unemployment rate showed the economy was getting stronger.

The US unemployment rate dipped to 9.7 percent from April's 9.9 percent, as large numbers of workers left the labor market.

"This report is a sign that our economy is getting stronger by the day," Obama told a crowd at a suburban truck dealership in Maryland.

"There are going to be some months where people start worrying that, you know, maybe we're not out of the hole yet.

"But if we remain determined, if we stick to it, if we stay the course of investing in our people and businesses... then I'm absolutely positive we can succeed."

But his comments did little to shake fears of a jobless recovery.

"There is no sugarcoating this report as it was disappointing," said Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors. "Forget the headline number, the private sector is not out there hiring like crazy."

That response was echoed on Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 160 points, or more than 1.5 percent, in opening trades. Key indices in Europe also fell.

Analysts said the skittishness was caused by fears the private sector will not be able to prop up the economy as the government gradually withdraws stimulus spending.

"The softer performance in US private sector payrolls... raises concern that the recovery is faltering," Stephen Gallagher and Aneta Markowska of Societe Generale said in a note to clients.

That would spell bad news for the nearly one in 10 American workers who are unemployed and continue to stream into government offices asking for help.

The Labor Department says almost 4.7 million Americans now claim unemployment benefits, with 453,000 new claims in the last week of May alone.

Instead of rehiring staff many firms are asking workers to put in longer hours or are creating only part-time jobs, according to data also released Friday.

The Labor Department said the average workweek has increased by around 20 minutes from a year ago to just over 34 hours.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/us-job-data-for-may-worse-than-expected-20100604-xky1.html

I've known this for a long time, but thanks for posting.

yeah,,what gets me about emplyment and unemployment numbers is how the numbers are manipulated to make the point,,,,as in,, they are either shown by picking the latest monthly report(which may seem positive or negative) or pointing out a longer range of dates(lets say the monthly 'average' over the whole year,.....


whatever changes the numbers go through, the long term affects will be something best determined after several years of observation and not just random monthly assessments,,,

According to the mingle news, Obama does everything on his own. No Congress and nobody else have a say into things, no one else can stop anything he wants.

Is it Obama's idea to have a census taken in 2010?

-No, census happens regardless of who is the president.

Did Obama say that "things are solved now" due to having a bunch of people hired for census work?

-No he didn't and just as the first answer, census workers would be hired regardless of who is the president.

People really need to figure out these spin masters and just realize that they have an agenda to spin any news to any direction they want to spin it and the worst part is that nobody is taking a step back from the big picture and read between the lines and cut out the BS.

And you know the worst part of it?

Those who are responsible for the economic problems and unemployment are getting away by pointing the finger at 1 guy (Obama) and keeping the focus of the public on him, while they laugh all the way to the bank and back and laugh on everyone else who are the victims of this massive pyramid scheme pulled on 300 million people.

I agree, but most Americans are addicted to BS. As George Carlin once said, "Bull**** is the glue that holds us together as Americans".

ah, the promise was 600,000 new jobs for the 787 billion dollar stimulus...census jobs were NOT included in that but were to be a BONUS lessening unemployment. If Obama can't deliver, he ought to not PROMISE. No spin there.

Come on now. It's been pointed out many times by a certain poster here that " Promise " only means " I'll try " in Obamaland.

Once again...the Obamabots will come up with SOME kind of " soft language " to make sure the spin goes the way they want it to.

Just look at ole Barry himself.

"This report is a sign that our economy is getting stronger by the day," Obama told a crowd at a suburban truck dealership in Maryland.

Who in the HELL does he think he's kidding.

The economy is in the toilet and is NOT getting any better. Jobs are NOT being created. Several MILLION people out of work ( an awful lot of them not even being counted ) and 41,000 jobs is a " sign of recovery "???

What fantasy land is he living in??

It sure as HELL isn't the United States.

hmmmm, Id like to see the quote that said ' 600,000 new jobs not counting census,,,'

a decrease in job losses may be seen as recovering,, its not really that fantastic,,,just simple numbers

"Roadmap to Recover" June 09

Here is the "Promised" list....Do u see any census jobs?

-The Department of the Interior will begin work to update and maintain 107 National Parks.

-The Department of Education is will fund 135,000 education jobs.

-The Department of Health and Human Services will pay for the expansion of 1,129 Health Centers.

-The Department of Transportation will begin improvements at 98 airports and over 1,500 highways.

-The Department of Veterans Affairs will make improvements at 90 veterans centers.

-The Department of Justice will hire or maintain 5,000 law enforcement officers.

-The Department of Agriculture will begin to build 200 new waste and water systems.

-The Environmental Protection Agency will start or accelerate work at 20 Superfund sites.

-The Department of Labor will create 125,000 summer youth jobs.

-The Department of Defense will undertake construction projects at 359 military facilities.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2009/0608/how-obama-plans-to-create-600000-jobs

let's see here ... looks to my wonderin' eyes like there's an awful lot of 'will create' or 'plans to create' or 'will hire or maintain' or 'will begin' used here - but where's the 'HAS HIRED', 'HAS CREATED', 'HAS BEGUN' ... ? Don't see that here, do we ... ? Nopenopenope ... could it be because all this is just SMOKE 'N MIRRORS ... ? It hasn't happened, and the likelihood is that it WON'T happen anytime soon. 'Jobs created or saved' ... what a euphemistic scam ... One particular area is of interest: The 20 'Superfund' sites - since 'Superfund' is out of MONEY, how are they gonna hire or pay ANYone to 'create' jobs? Should be fun to watch, tho' ... Government doesn't do squat to create jobs - PRIVATE INDUSTRY does that. Government is the 'job-killer'.

Total employment by industry can be found at: http://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cesbtab1.htm

The current ratio is 22 million government employed / 136 million total employed = 16.2%.

The federal government employs about 2.7 million people.

State governments employ about 5 million people.

Local governments employ about 14 million people.


my mom has a pretty nice retirement from a GOVERNMENT job,,,

I rest my case.

Psst...by the way...

A " decrease in job losses " is NOT a " recovery ". CREATING JOBS ( and not just temporary GOVERNMENT jobs )is the recovery.

well, how would one CREATE a net job growth without first bringing down net job loss?

that would be like a man suffering hair loss of twenty hairs a day, but then he starts growing ten a day while at the same time only losing 15 hairs where he was once only losing,,,,

so the equation would look like this n(number of hairs)-20 daily

compared with n + 10 -15 or n - 5 daily,,,which is an improvement, or ,, a recovery,,

Well..at least we know who he's kidding now.

With all due respect, he's got you completely and utterly snowed.

His " plans " have had little effect. The " stimulus " has been a complete and utter failure. The bailouts for the banks...same thing.

Will Obama ever realize that Government can't create jobs and that only private industry ( which Obama hates ) is the only thing that DOES create jobs??

Until he does...there will be no recovery and no " hope and change ".

Bingo!

we can agree to disagree, I posted above the JOBS created by government. And assessment of the stimulus is subjective to what was expected and within what time frame. I dont feel kidded or snowed. He said these things would take time and I expected no less.

But you fail to understand that government doesn't "create" jobs. It allocates capital from the private sector to create make-work positions. Bastiat illustrated this with his broken window fallacy, and others have elaborated on it in detail. (Mises, Rothbard, Smith, etc.) Even Nietzsche said "The state is the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly it lies, too; and this lie creeps from its mouth: `I, the state, am the people.'... Everything about it is false; it bites with stolen teeth."

With that understanding, its probably safe to use common sense and apply the 'allocating' principle in place of the word 'create' and expect that government is talking about the same thing whichever word it chooses. I understand, from the standpoint of where the money is coming from, there is a difference between government jobs and private sector jobs, however, this does not change the impact on the economy that people being able to work, pay their bills, and purchase goods and services has. Not to mention, the ability for people to afford the education for themselves and their children to potentially have the skills to work in private sector jobs,,,,,its all linked together