In the month of May, businesses hired fewer workers than anticipated, leading doubt into the strength of the economic recovery. Only 69,000 jobs were added in May and unemployment rose by 8.2 percent. Economists at CNNMoney expected to see employers add 150,000 jobs in May and the unemployment rate to remain at 8.1 percent. Report revisions from previous months also showed the economy gained fewer jobs in March and April than originally thought. March’s job numbers lowered by 11,000, and April’s plunged by 38,000.
The public sector lost 13,000 jobs in May. Economists reportedly believe the slow growth is at the fault of Europe and Washington, D.C. They say the steady drumbeat of headlines regarding Europe’s financial woes, as well as the looming fiscal cliff in the U.S., are weighing on consumer confidence. In addition, the Chinese economy is slowing down. Nearly 12.7 million Americans remain unemployed, and 42.8 percent of them have been so for six or more months. The overall job market has a long road ahead to climb out of the deep hole left by the financial crisis of 2008. Only 3.8 million jobs have been added back to the 8.8 million that were lost.
