Jobs Report: U.S. Adds Just 38,000 Jobs In May, Unemployment Rate Down To 4.7%

The employment picture took a turn for the worst Friday with new data showing the weakest payroll gains in nearly six years. Adding to the confusion, people leaving the labor force altogether pushed the unemployment rate to it’s lowest point in close to nine years. A report out from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday shows employers in the United States added only 38,000 jobs last month, the smallest gain since September 2010. The BLS report also shows that in May the unemployment rate declined to 4.7%, the lowest rate since November 2007. The rate had been at 5% in March and April. These results were far off economists’s already tempered were expectations of about 155,000 jobs added and for the unemployment rate to decline to 4.9%. Read more at Forbes.