Obama regime playing the blame game.
Via WLTX:
In a flash, the U.S. labor market appeared to morph Friday from a reliable race car into a creaky bicycle.
Not only did the economy create just 38,000 new jobs in May, its weakest showing since 2010, but the Labor Department revised down employment gains for the previous two months by 59,000. That cut average monthly gains in 2016 to about 150,000 from 209,000 last year.
Why have employers suddenly throttled back hiring? And is this the new baseline for a labor market that’s been a pillar of the economy?
The short answer: Job growth is expected to slow somewhat now that the economy is approaching full employment, but gains the past two months have been suppressed by myriad temporary factors, from odd weather patterns to Donald Trump.
“The trend of job growth has downshifted,” says Stuart Hoffman, chief economist of PNC Financial Services Group.
But Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, says Friday’s meager total “significantly overstates the slowdown.”
Hoffman and Zandi agree that the 4.7% unemployment rate, lowest since November 2007, means there are fewer available workers to fill job openings, slowing hiring. Employers are struggling to find high-skilled workers in particular, a problem they’ve faced for several years because of mismatches between job requirements and the talents of laid-off employees. It looms larger amid a shrinking pool of workers.
Lauren Griffin, senior vice president of Adecco Staffing, says employer demand and placements have remained strong. But she says it’s tougher to find workers, particularly in fields such as technology and engineering, and so openings are taking longer to fill this year.
Zandi expects monthly job growth to average 175,000 the rest of 2016. Hoffman forecasts average gains of 150,000.[…]
The good news: The economy is expected to rebound in the current quarter.