Unemployment Rate Rises to 8.2%; Trucking Gains Jobs

The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 8.2% in May from April’s three-year-low 8.1%, but trucking and transportation employment improved, the Labor Department said Friday.

Trucking added 7,300 jobs, while the transportation sector, of which it is a subset, added 35,600, according to the department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

April’s trucking-jobs gain was revised up to 2,700, from an originally reported 1,800, Labor figures showed.

Overall, U.S. employers added 69,000 jobs — the smallest number of workers in a year — following a revised 77,000 upturn in April that was smaller than originally reported.

The increase was well below economists’ median forecast of a 150,000-jobs gain, Bloomberg reported.

Manufacturing added 12,000 jobs, below the 15,000 level forecast, while service-sector employment added 84,000.

Construction companies cut 28,000 jobs, the most in two years, Bloomberg reported.

The payroll and unemployment figures are obtained by separate surveys, with payrolls from a survey of employers and the unemployment rate from a survey of households.