Thursday, June 10, 2010

May jobs report fails to meet expectations

Fingers have been crossed, prayers offered and hands are wrung waiting for an increase within the number of jobs. The May jobs report did not live up to those expectations. That isn’t really to say it was bad, but it was not as good as many were hoping, which caused a disturbance in the stock markets. Fewer than 50,000 non-farming private sector jobs were added, and the biggest job growth over the last couple of months seems to be for the US Census.

Slower growth according to the jobs report

The Department of Labor didn’t disclose doom and gloom entirely in the May jobs report. That said, it also would seem that the currently high unemployment rate will have to be addressed via attrition. According to Forbes, the May jobs report showed a gain of 431,000 total jobs. Most were seasonal employment. The US Census accounted for 411,000 of those jobs, so unemployment is going to go back up in June.

Private sector slips

There wasn’t a great gain in the private sector. Only 41,000 jobs were added overall in non-farming private sector jobs, which is down from 218,000 from the April jobs report. It looks like a slow climb, as those are the lowest numbers of jobs created given that January. The unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent, in contrast to 9.9 percent in April.

Stock markets slide

This spring has been a turbulent time for the stock markets. On the heels of the news that job growth had been slower than anticipated, combined with the European debt crisis, the Dow Jones and NASDAQ indexes both slid 1.9 percent and a 2 percent slide for the S&P 500, as outlined by CNN Money. It may be longer than previously believed before true recovery has occurred.

A lot more details on this topic

Forbes

forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/06/04/general-technology-hardware-amp-equipment-us-economy_7661383.html?boxes=Homepagetopnews

CNN Money

money.cnn.com/2010/06/04/markets/markets_newyork/



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