Payrolls Rose in May, But Jobless Scraping By

June 4, 2010 — -- The Labor Department today reported that the U.S. economy gained 431,000 jobs in May and that the jobless rate dropped to 9.7 percent from 9.9 percent in April.

That was about 100,000 fewer new jobs than analysts' had forecasted and the rise was mainly due to hiring temporary workers for the U.S. Census. Hiring by private employers remained sluggish, raising new doubts about the strength of the economic recovery.

The statistics are not much comfort for people like Dale Rosenberg. She's smart, articulate and cheerful. Her resume glistens with a wide range of sought-after skills and experience working complex technology jobs at the Federal Reserve and Merrill Lynch.

But since getting laid off from the New York Department of Health 10 months ago, Rosenberg has not been able to find a job. The single mother raising three teenagers in the expensive New York neighborhood of Park Slope desperately needs to find work before her savings run out.

"I've never had trouble getting a job before, but it's a whole different economy now," says Rosenberg, who has supplemented her government unemployment benefits by dipping into retirement savings.

Rosenberg says she does everything one is supposed to do: apply through job sites, e-mail companies directly and network as much as she can. But none of it is helping.

"Truly, a bunch of unemployed people in a room talking to each other doesn't get you a job," she says.

This is the job hunt in the wake of the great crash. Almost 6.7 million Americans have been out of work longer than six months, with more than half -- 4.7 million -- jobless for more than a year, according to the U.S. Labor Department. This is the highest level since the government began tracking data in 1948, and experts say it's a particularly painful hallmark of the current recession.

"Regular unemployment is what happens in a normal recession, when companies lay off workers for a short period of time and then hire them back when the economy recovers," says Edward Stuart, an economics professor at Northeastern Illinois University.

This time, however, tight credit markets and weak consumer spending have dried up company finances, making it very difficult for them to add new workers.

In addition, the recession has hit some industries -- such as construction and manufacturing -- especially hard, which means that workers in those areas might find it almost impossible to land another job in their sector.