38,000 sounds like a lot of jobs to some people, but when they announce that number, they should also announce the number of people who entered the job market....College and high school graduates, people coming off of disability, etc...that would show how miserable that the job situation is.
The one to REALLY worry about is this:
Within manufacturing, employment in durable goods declined by 18,000 in May, with job losses of 7,000 in machinery and 3,000 in furniture and related products.
The rest is bad, but doesn’t include our core abiity to make and provide durable goods without import, provide core abilities in manufacturing for defense and the loss of a production workforce to retraining, etc.
In May, mining employment continued to decline (-10,000). Since reaching a peak in September 2014, mining has lost 207,000 jobs. Support activities for mining accounted for three-fourths of the jobs lost during this period, including 6,000 in May.
Employment in information declined by 34,000 in May. About 35,000 workers in the telecommunications industry were on strike and not on company payrolls during the survey reference period.
Employment in professional and business services changed little in May (+10,000), after increasing by 55,000 in April. Within the industry, professional and technical services added 26,000 jobs in May, in line with average monthly gains over the prior 12 months. Employment in temporary help services was little changed over the month (-21,000) but is down by 64,000 thus far this year.
Employment in other major industries, including construction, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, financial activities, leisure and hospitality, and government, changed little over the month.