U.S. job growth slowed sharply in May, a sign of a sputtering recovery that may increase pressure on the Federal Reserve to prop up the economy.
Nonfarm payrolls grew by a lackluster 69,000 last month, the Labor Department said Friday, the smallest gain in a year. The unemployment rate, obtained by a separate survey of U.S. households, ticked higher by one-tenth of a percentage point to 8.2%, the first increase since June 2011.
"This is what a jobless recovery looks like," said Nomura Securities economist Jeffrey Greenberg.
