Employment growth slows sharply in May

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Employers hired far fewer workers than expected in May and the jobless rate rose to 9.1 percent, raising concerns the economy might be stuck in a painful slow-growth mode.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 54,000 last month, the weakest reading since September, the Labor Department said on Friday. Private employment rose just 83,000, the least since last June, while government payrolls dropped 29,000.

Economists had expected payrolls to rise 150,000 and private hiring to increase 175,000. The government revised employment figures for March and April to show 39,000 fewer jobs created than previously estimated.

The job creation slowdown confirmed the economic weakness already flagged by other data from consumer spending to manufacturing, and it stoked fears the economy could be facing a more troubling stretch of weakness than had been thought.

"There are plenty of reasons to expect the third quarter will be better. But the question is now becoming how much better?," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Economists had pinned the economy's sluggishness largely on high energy prices, supply chain disruptions stemming from Japan's earthquake and tornadoes and flooding in U.S. Midwest and South. The department said it found "no clear impact" from weather on the jobs figures.

The employment report provides one of the best early reads on the health of the U.S. economy and it sets the tone for global financial markets.

U.S. stocks opened lower, while Treasury debt prices added to earlier gains and interest rate futures rose, signaling that traders believe mounting signs of economic weakness will lead the Federal Reserve to maintain an ultra-easy monetary policy.

The sharp slowdown in job creation is troubling news for President Barack Obama, whose chances of re-election next year could hinge on the health of the economy.

>>70s Firebirds weren’t worth a crap anyway<<

Funny you mention that. It is seeming that anything “vintage, as opposed to antique” is sought after these days. I’m big into “vintage” stereos and am a member of a few sites. Some of these guys will find old BSR turntables and Radio Shack receivers and speakers from the late 60’s and early 70’s and proudly pronounce it as though they struck a mile wide gold vein. But I used to sell that stuff. It was and IS CRAP. But it’s vintage crap! ;)

I used to say to my daughters that the world is changing as much in five years as it used to change in five generations. I think it’s more like every two years now. People cannot cope with this rate of change. Society will fray at the edges and finally come undone. I think a lot of people are learning to cope by doing anything they can to pull them into a simpler time. I was in a stereo store that sells new, fairly high end turntables (yeah, they play the big black CD’s using a little diamond needle) and he said most of his customers are in their 20’s.

Meanwhile, even I have purchased a sony walkman (50 cents at an estate sale) so I can plug it into the aux in for the stereo in my Scion xB and listen to the 300 + cassettes I’ve purchased over the last few months for a grand total of $11.

My daughters (all in their 20’s) are even getting into this stuff intependently of my influence.

It is kinda fun to watch, except the core reason is frightening.

Instead, they focus on jobs created, jobs saved, and jobs related to Porkulus. How they calculate “jobs saved” is questionable, but if the MSM doesn’t ask the questions, then made-up numbers can be fed to the world through the MSM.

I heard a few interviews with business owners at the time and they said if they received any government contracts at all someone from the government would call and question them about how many new employees they hired because of the contract. If the answer was none, as it usually was, the caller would then ask how many employees they would have let go without the contract. If the answer was none again the caller would keep cajoling them to agree that some jobs were saved. They said those callers were more persistent that door-to-door encyclopedia salesmen until most businessmen would finally give up and agree that some jobs may have been saved. Boom! Onto the list would go those "saved jobs" go.

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