<p>As most of you know, the job reports for last month were released today. Overall, the job market’s progress is OK. The economy added 431,000 jobs (including temporary census workers), and the private sector, which excludes those positions, added 41,000 jobs. The unemployment rate dipped slightly from 9.9% to 9.7%:</p>
<p>[U.S</a> Economy adds 431 thousand jobs in May as Unemployment drops to 9.7% , Top Story - ecPulse.com](<a href=“http://www.ecpulse.com/en/topstory/2010/06/04/us-economy-add-431-thousand-may-unemployment-drops/]U.S”>http://www.ecpulse.com/en/topstory/2010/06/04/us-economy-add-431-thousand-may-unemployment-drops/)</p>
<p>So, where are the problem spots in the economy? Let’s see:</p>
<p>“most sectors in the labor market managed to add jobs except … the Construction sector shed 35 thousand jobs” (from the same article quoted above)
The only other sectors that lost jobs were the retail and financial sectors, but the number of jobs lost in both of those sectors combined (19,000) were much less than the number of jobs lost in the construction industry.</p>
<p>The dismal performance of the construction industry last winter was blamed on snowstorms and bad weather. Now that spring is here, what’s the excuse for the bad job performance of the construction industry? Solar flares?</p>