Economists were relieved that the numbers weren’t worse, given a string of other disappointing data in recent weeks, but noted that recent job trends are nowhere close to bringing the country back to full employment. At the current pace of job growth, it would take nearly five years to get the economy back to the low unemployment rate it enjoyed when the recession officially began in December 2007.

“It’s a decent report, but it’s not by any means robust,” said Conrad DeQuadros, senior economist at RDQ Economics, a research firm. “It’s certainly not strong enough to get the Fed to make any significant changes at its meeting in June,” he said, referring to speculation that the Federal Reserve might consider pulling back on its monetary stimulus if the jobs numbers came in strong.

On the bright side, the unemployment rate rose for a good reason: more people joined the labor force, perhaps indicating that Americans who have been sitting on the sidelines feel that they finally have a chance at finding a job. Still, the labor force participation rate remains low by historical standards.

In a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted May 31 to June 4, nearly half of respondents – 46 percent — rated the job market in their area as very or fairly good, with a third saying that they think their local job markets will improve over the next year. The same poll found that 39 percent of respondents said that the condition of the economy was very or fairly good, the highest share saying this since President Obama took office and even since the recession began.

Despite signs of optimism from consumers, other indicators of the health of the job market have been mixed. Average weekly hours and average hourly earnings, for example, have shown little improvement in recent months, according to the Labor Department.

Job gains in May were concentrated in service sectors like professional and business services, retail, and food services and drinking places. That last category has added 337,000 jobs over the past year.

The federal government, on the other hand, lost 14,000 jobs in May, presumably a result of the across-the-board spending cuts, known as the sequester, implemented by Congress in March.

Over the last three months, the federal government has shed 45,000 jobs, not including the furloughs that many federal employees are being placed on. The Pentagon, for example, has said that it would furlough 680,000 civilian workers starting in early July, with most workers losing about one paid day a week.

Though difficult to measure, the sequester probably has had effects in the private sector, both because government contractors are laying off workers and because laid off or furloughed government and contract workers have had less money to spend at their local businesses.

In addition to causing layoffs, the sequester could also be affecting those who already have lost their jobs by trimming social safety net services like Meals on Wheels and job training programs. As of May, there were 11.8 million people unemployed, 4.4 million of whom had been pounding the pavement for at least six months.

Almost every state has cut its unemployment insurance benefits as a result of the sequester, according to the National Employment Law Project, a labor-oriented research and advocacy organization. Some states, like Florida and Maine, are cutting the weeks for which jobless workers will continue receiving benefits, and others, like Illinois, are reducing the size of the weekly benefit checks (in Illinois, the cut was 16.8 percent). Some states, like Washington and Idaho, are also laying off employees who work in the labor agencies that help workers apply for benefits and find jobs.

North Carolina is ending its federally funded extended unemployment benefits on July 1 because reductions in its state benefits left it ineligible for the federal money.

“I’m having a hard time finding somebody who will give a 50-year-old with a few health problems a chance,” said Dwayne Fields of Goldsboro, N.C.

He was let go from his warehouse manager job of 12 years last October for “poor job performance” after he told his boss about some health problems, including a diagnosis of cardiomyopathy, hypertension and sleep apnea. He said he has since gotten treatment that has put him back into good working shape, but no one responds to his job applications. And his $212 weekly jobless benefit checks are about to end.

“I’m probably too old to flip burgers and deliver pizzas,” he said. “But if worse comes to worst I’ll do it. I’ve got an old lady and a 11-year-old kid to support.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/08/business/economy/us-added-175000-jobs-in-may-jobless-rate-rises-to-7-6.html?partner=rss&emc=rss