Truespeak

Whoops!

Employers throttled back hiring in May, boosting jobs by just 78,000, the government reported Friday. The most sluggish pace of payroll expansion in nearly two years dramatized the erratic behavior of the nation's job market.

[.....]

The payroll gain of 78,000 followed a hiring spurt of 274,000 in April. Job cuts last month were reported in manufacturing, leisure and hospitality and professional and business. Those losses tempered gains elsewhere.

The generally lackluster performance surprised economists. Before the report was released, they were predicting jobs to grow by around 175,000 and the jobless rate to hold steady at 5.2 percent.

[.....]

On the payroll front, the report showed that manufacturers cut 7,000 jobs in May, following a loss of 9,000 in April. Leisure and hospitality companies shed 6,000 jobs last month, compared with a gain of 63,000 in April. Professional and business services trimmed payrolls by 1,000 in May, a deterioration compared to an increase of 33,000 reported in April.

Retailers added more than 10,000 jobs in May, a deceleration from the nearly 27,000 added in April. Construction companies boosted payrolls by 20,000 last month, compared with 48,000 in April.

You gotta' love that Bush economy! Aside from the fact that these numbers aren't even close to keeping up with the expanding workforce, almost forty percent of those new jobs were in retail (low income/no benefits) and construction (mostly seasonal). You know, I seem to remember Georgieboy telling us that we were "turning the corner." Well I got news for ya' George, you might want to turn the map over, 'cause I think we just missed our turn.

Have a great weekend everybody! I'll see you on Monday.