When the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the nation added just thirty eight thousand jobs in May according to their establishment survey, economists and others were stunned. That was the worst monthly performance in more than five years.
Not only that, revisions to data characterizing job creation during the two prior months indicated that the nation added fifty nine thousand fewer positions that previously thought. The household survey indicated that the nation added only twenty eight thousand jobs and also that nearly half a million people left the labor force.
Those departures help push the official unemployment rate down to 4.7 percent, but there was little celebration since unemployment fell for the wrong reasons. Economists were quick to point out that a strike at Verizon probably reduced estimated job creation in May by about thirty five thousand positions, but even taking that into account means that May was a major disappointment.
It gets worse. As reported in the New York Times, Johns Hopkins economics professor Jonathan Wright has published an algorithm for adjusting labor market data for seasonal fluctuations. According to that algorithm, the jobs report actually overstated job growth in May and the nation may have actually lost jobs.
