While we have already commented that the "awesomely bad" jobs report was just that, both qualitatively and quantitatively, one question is where the jobs weakness was most pronounced, i.e., which sectors saw the biggest drops in jobs in May. The answer: half of all job sectors posted a decline in May payrolls, a drop that was much broader than just the Verizon miss.
The incredible miss in May's jobs data (only adding 38,000 jobs, the lowest since September 2010) caused Rick Santelli to explode into another one of his epic rants - slamming the fact that the headline unemployment number will be touted and the central banks have created such a mess.
"Ten more months of thirty something thousand and we'll be under 3% unemployment! This totally summarizes the disconnect between good jobs, the jobs number, the unemployment rate and what motivates the fed and its dual pillars"
Firts, a few notes from FTN on today's report which the firm classified quite simply as "awesomely bad":
U.S. Jobs ’Awesomely Bad’, Particularly Poor Timing
While we already assessed the quantitative aspect of today's jobs report, which we characterized as abysmal because even when factoring in the 35,000 Verizon job losses, there was some 130,000 unexplained layoffs (sorry, it wasn't the weather), it is time for a look at the qualitative aspects of the report. And, we are sad to report, that things here go from bad to worse: while in the recent past disappointing headline payrolls were at least offset by an improvement in full-time jobs, this did not happen in May.
So much for that much anticipated rebound in the participation rate. After it had managed to rise for 5 months in a row through March, hitting the highest level in one year, the disenchantment with working has returned, and the labor force participation rate promptly slumped in both April and May, sliding 0.4% in the past two months to 62.60%, just shy of its 35 year low of 62.4% hit last October. This can be seen in the surge of Americans who are no longer in the labor force, who spiked by 664,000 in May, hitting an all time high of 94.7 million.