U.S. job losses in 2008 surpass 300,000, the unemployment rate spikes to 5.5 percent in May
The bad news continues to bear down on us this month, with the U.S. losing close to 50,000 jobs over the course of May and the unemployment rate rising by another half a percent. That, unfortunately, makes our country’s streak of declining payroll numbers five months strong. And seeing as I naturally possess a low level of optimism (I like to think of myself as a realist), I’m having trouble mustering up some words of encouragement for all of you regarding the latest BLS employment situation report. So in an effort not to pontificate on this “streak” of ours in a way that isn’t all gloomy and doomsdayish, I’ll cut straight to the facts.
The nation is currently flirting with an unemployment rate of 5.5 percent, which is a dramatic jump from April’s much more tolerable rate of an even 5.0 percent. The additional 49,000 positions that were dropped from the payroll totals in May bring our overall job losses in 2008 to 324,000. The employment situation report released on Friday morning specifically reported higher unemployment rates among adult men and women, teenagers, blacks, and whites. The number of newly unemployed persons in the nation spiked upward in May by 760,000 as well, bringing that segment of the population to 3.2 million.
Job losses and gains were, once again, standard. The construction industry suffered a loss of 34,000 positions. Manufacturing employment also trended downward (-26,000 jobs), as did retail trade (-27,000 jobs). Professional and business services rounded out the large losses in May with 39,000 less positions. Within this industry, temporary help services alone lost 30,000 jobs. Much of last month’s overall drop in nonfarm payroll employment could be contributed to the professional and business services sector. The industry fluctuates and hasn’t consistently lost jobs over the past few months, unlike the construction, manufacturing, and retail trade industries.
With regard to employment gains, health care posted one of the only significant numbers in May, adding 34,000 positions overall. This latest increase brings the health care sector’s job creation over the past 12 months to almost 400,000 positions.
In closing, the average workweek for production and nonsupervisory workers was unchanged (at 33.7 hours) over the past month. And the average hourly earnings of U.S. workers rose by another five cents in May — bringing the average weekly earnings of these employees to $604.58. Since May 2007, the average hourly wages for the country’s workforce have risen 3.5 percent.