The nation’s economy only created 69,000 jobs in May, well below expectations, while the unemployment rate rose slightly, from 8.1 percent to 8.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday.
Employment increased in health care, transportation and warehousing, and wholesale trade, but declined in construction.
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment for adult men at 7.8 percent and Hispanics at 11 percent increased slightly in May, while the rates for adult women at 7.4 percent, teenagers at 24.6 percent, whites at 7.4 percent, and blacks at 13.6 percent had little or no change. The unemployment rate for Asians dropped down to 5.2 percent in May, compared to 7.0 percent May last year.
With the November presidential election edging up, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney called the report a “harsh indictment of the president’s handling of the economy” in his blog Friday morning.
Back at the White House, Alan Krueger, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said the problems in the job market “were long in the making and will not be solved overnight.”
The employment report for June is set to be released on July 6.
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