U.S. Employment Increases By Much Less Than Expected In May

(RTTNews) - Partly reflecting the impact of a recent strike by Verizon (VZ) workers, the Labor Department released a report on Friday showing much weaker than expected U.S. job growth in the month of May.

The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment edged up by just 38,000 jobs in May compared to economist estimates for an increase of about 158,000 jobs.

The job gains in March and April were also downwardly revised to 186,000 and 123,000, respectively, reflecting a net downward revision of 59,000 jobs.

The report said the unemployment rate still fell to 4.7 percent in May from 5.0 percent in April, as people left the labor force. The unemployment rate had been expected to dip to 4.9 percent.