According to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Situation Summary, the unemployment rate rose a percent and is back at 8.2 percent and the 69,000 jobs growth number is less than half of the expected 150,000 that was projected for May 2012.
This makes the 40th straight month unemployment has been above 8 percent.
The breakdown:
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (7.8 percent) and Hispanics (11.0 percent) edged up in May, while the rates for adult women (7.4 percent), teenagers (24.6 percent), whites (7.4 percent), and blacks (13.6 percent) showed little or no change. The jobless rate for Asians was 5.2 percent in May (not seasonally adjusted), down from 7.0 percent a year earlier.
Those figures do not include the 2.4 million, who are considered "not in the labor force" even though they wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.
Including those brings the U6, which is the total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, up from 14.5 percent in April to 14.8 percent in May.
The Labor Department has also revised the previous two month's figures downward.
AP:
The Labor Department also said Friday that the economy created far fewer jobs in the previous two months than first thought. It revised those figures down to show 49,000 fewer jobs created. The unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent from 8.1 percent in April, the first increase in 11 months.
Once again, as is usual in our unemployment pieces we list areas still at or above the official national average for unemployment are:
Arizona- 8.2%
California- 10.9%
D.C.- 9.5%
Florida- 8.7%
Georgia- 8.9%
Illinois- 8.7%
Kentucky- 8.3%
Michigan- 8.3%
Mississippi- 8.7%
Nevada- 11.7%
New Jersey- 9.1%
New York - 8.5%
North Carolina- 9.4%
Oregon- 8.5%
Rhode Island- 11.2%
South Carolina- 8.8%
Data obtained from Bureau of Labor Statistics on the Local Area Unemployment Statistics page. (Right side)
As Morrissey over at Hot Air points out, Mitt Romney was ready for this report, expected it, as the campaign released an ad pointing to the tepid recovery saying it is because Obama "fails to understand the nature of free enterprise in America."
[WATCH]
