Unemployment Rate at 9.4%

There is some good news and bad news on the job front. The good news less jobs were lost than was expected, the bad is the unemployment rate is now 9.4%. My 2009 forecast issue predicted an unemployment rate of 9% but it looks like prediction was too low. We may hit 11-12% by year end. The devil though is in the previous months revision adding 82,000 to Aprils job losses look for a big revision in May as well.Lou

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to a 26-year high of 9.4% in May as 345,000 payroll jobs were lost, the Labor Department reported Friday.

The decline in payrolls was the smallest since September, and much lower than the 500,000 expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. Payrolls had lost an average of 643,000 in the previous six months.

Payrolls in March and April were revised higher by 82,000.

Details of the report were mixed. While the payroll figures from a survey of business sites was much better than expected, a separate survey of households showed unemployment increased more than expected. Unemployment rose by 787,000 in the month to 14.5 million, pushing the jobless rate from 8.9% to 9.4%, the highest since August 1983.

Steep job losses continued in the goods-producing industries, with 225,000 payrolls lost. Manufacturing industries lost 156,000, with just 12% of manufacturing industries adding workers. Construction industries lost 59,000 jobs, the fewest since September.

Among 271 industries across the economy, 32.7% were hiring in May.

The pace of job loss moderated in services, which lost 120,000 jobs, the fewest since August. Temporary help jobs fell by 6,500, the fewest since the recession began in December 2007.

Health-care firms added 36,000 jobs in May. Retail lost 17,500. Financial services lost 30,000