South By North Strategies, Ltd.

The national employment report for May is an unimpressive one. Last month, employers added 431,000 more payroll positions than they eliminated. Almost all of the gain, however, was attributable to the hiring of temporary workers by the U.S. Census Bureau.

In May, the nation’s employers added 431,000 more payroll positions than they cut. Gains occurred primarily in the public sector due to the hiring of 411,000 temporary census workers by the federal government. The rest of the economy netted just 20,000 positions. The largest private-sector gains occurred in manufacturing (+29,000) and in professional and business services (+22,000), primarily in the temporary help services sub-industry. Construction payrolls fell by 35,000 positions, which erased many of the industry’s recent gains. All other major industry groups recorded little or no change.

Jobs remained hard to find in May. Last month, 46 percent of all unemployed workers had been jobless for at least six months. Many other individuals simply stopped looking, and counting those individuals and those working part-time on an involuntary basis brings the underemployment rate to 16.6 percent.

Click here to read South by North Strategies’ full analysis of the May report.