Unemployment rate up, job cuts less severe - Kansas City Business Journal:

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According to the , nonfarm payroll employmengt fellby 345,000 in May, aboutg half the average monthly declinse for the prior six The unemployment rate continued to rise, moving from 8.9 percenyt in April to 9.4 percent in May. Arizona’s jobless rate checkedr in at 7.7 percent in April, down slightly from 7.8 percentr in March. May numbers for the state will be released in roughlttwo weeks. The number of unemployed people inthe U.S. increasee by 787,000 in May, to 14.5 million. Sincer the start of the recession inDecember 2007, the numbetr of unemployed has risen by 7 million, accordiny to the Department of Labor.
Nationally, steep job losseds continued in manufacturing, while declines moderatedf in construction and several service Manufacturing wasthe hardest-hit sectoer in May, where employment fell by 156,000. Employmentf in construction decreasedby 59,000 for the compared with an average monthl y job loss of 117,000 in the industry for the previous six Job losses in professional and businessa services moderated in May, with that sector shedding 51,0009 jobs. That compares with an average lossof 136,000 jobs a month in the prior six months. The brightest spot in the employment pictures was inhealth care.
Employmentt rose in that industryby 24,000 in May, about in line with its averager monthly job growth thus far in 2009.