We will get the May unemployment rate on Friday, but in the meantime:
In May, construction employment dropped 108,000. This was its twenty-eighth consecutive monthly decline, and brings the total decline in construction jobs since the peak in January 2007 to 1,345,000.
Think about it – we’ve spent $28 billion in stimulus funds, obligated $126 billion so far, and the stimulus hasn’t even kept the number of construction jobs level from month to month.
Overall, ADP calculated nonfarm private employment decreased 532,000 from April to May 2009. And this whole “the rate of job loss has started to slow” defense is getting tiresome, as the stimulus would never have passed if its supporters had promised “if we pass this, we’ll only be losing a bit more than a half million jobs per month.”
John Lott has more. Analysis, that is, not jobs, but at this rate, who knows?