Census hiring drives up U.S. May employment numbers

Employment grew by 431,000 nonfarm jobs last month — but 411,000 of those were temporary ones added by the government for work on the 2010 Census, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said today. In the private sector, just 41,000 jobs were added overall, bringing the nationwide unemployment rate down to 9.7 percent from 9.9 percent in April. In the construction industry, employment declined by 35,000 jobs, reversing gains seen over the past two months. Meanwhile, the number of discouraged workers — those who are no longer looking for work because they don’t think they would be able to find it — increased by 291,000 year-over-year to 1.1 million. See the full May employment report below.

TRD

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

May census data