The economy gained a mere 54,000 jobs in the month, a significant slowdown from 232,000 jobs added to payrolls in April, the government reported Friday. The report was a major disappointment to economists who were expecting a gain of 170,000 jobs, according to a CNNMoney survey. Most believe the economy needs to add about 150,000 jobs a month just to keep pace with population growth. The unemployment rate worsened to 9.1% from 9% in April. Economists had predicted the rate would improve to 8.9%.
"It is now pretty clear that the economy ran into a brick wall last month," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist for Capital Economics, in a research note. "The extent of this slowdown is becoming a big concern." While investors and economists, were already bracing for a weak report, the number shook markets and rattled forecasters. U.S. stocks plunged on the news Friday, and many economists slashed growth projections. They said the combination of weak hiring and other recent disappointments in the health of consumer spending, home values and manufacturing suggest serious problems in the economy that will not be easy to overcome.
"Is this transitory? The answer is no," said Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of Economic Cycle Research Institute. He said this report could raise further doubts among employers about the strength of the recovery, which could cause them to pull back even more on hiring plans. The report included other signs of growing pains for the unemployed. The number of jobless who have been out of work for more than six months jumped by 361,000, bringing the average number of weeks the unemployed job seekers have been out of work to just under 40 weeks, a record high.
Overall, the number of unemployed rose by 167,000 to 13.9 million, the highest so far this year. But some optimists cautioned not to read too much into one report that was admittedly a major disappointment. "There are always ebbs and flows to the jobs market," said Scot Melland, CEO of Dice Holdings, a provider of career Web sites. "One month does not a trend make. This comes on the back of three strong months of jobs growth."
Employers getting jittery