Unemployment stats spike in May

In another blow to a reeling economy, the unemployment rate surged to 5.5% in May, from 5% in April, and stood at one full percentage point higher than the 4.5% rate a year earlier. This marked the largest month-to-month increase since May 1980, when the rate spiked to 7.5%, from 6.9%, a Department of Labor spokeswoman said. Non-farm payrolls fell by 49,000 last month, following a loss of 28,000 jobs in April. For the first five months of the year, payroll employment has declined by 324,000 jobs. Wall Street economists surveyed by Reuters had forecasted that 58,000 jobs would be lost in May and that the unemployment rate would climb to 5.1%. The construction, manufacturing and professional services industries recorded job losses of 34,000, 26,000 and 39,000, respectively. In one of the report's few bright spots, the health care industry added 34,000 jobs. For the month, average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory workers on private non-farm payrolls rose 5 cents, or 0.3%, to a seasonally adjusted $17.94. That followed gains of 2 cents in April and 6 cents in March. The average workweek for production and non-supervisory workers on private non-farm payrolls was unchanged at a seasonally adjusted 33.7 hours. On Thursday, the Labor Department had reported that seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims totaled 357,000 for the week ended May 31, marking a decrease of 18,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 375,000.