Unemployment Falls to 9.7%
The U.S. economy added 431,000 new jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 9.7% in May from 9.9% in April, the Labor Department said Friday.
Most of the jobs — 411,000 — were government hires of temporary workers for the U.S. Census, Labor said.
Private-sector hires rose by 41,000, below economists’ forecasts, Bloomberg reported. The unemployment rate was forecast to slip to 9.8%.
The private-sector payrolls figure followed a gain of 218,000 in April that was revised down from an originally reported 231,000.
