On Friday, the US Department of Labor reported that only 82,000 private sector jobs were added in May, and 13,000 government jobs, as the unemployment rate edged up 0.1 percent to 8.2 percent. About 642,000 individuals joined the labor force in May, and most of them were unable to find employment. Although there were gains in some industries such as healthcare, transportation and wholesale, they were more than offset by losses in construction and other sectors.
The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) reported that construction employment fell by 28,000 in May, the largest decline in two years. The drop in construction employment comes as new figures show a 1.4 percent decrease in public construction spending restrained overall construction activity growth to 0.3 percent. Total construction employment now stands at 5,516,000, or 0.5 percent lower than a month earlier but 18,000 higher (0.3 percent) than in May 2011. Meanwhile the industry's unemployment rate is at 14.2 percent, nearly double the national average.