Unemployment: A Third of New Jobs Created to Meet Regulatory Burdens

 

Yahoo! Finance: Employment growth slows sharply in May:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Employers hired far fewer workers than expected in May and the jobless rate rose to 9.1 percent, raising concerns the economy might be stuck in a painful slow-growth mode.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 54,000 last month, the weakest reading since September, the Labor Department said on Friday. Private employment rose just 83,000, the least since last June, while government payrolls dropped 29,000.

That's the top line story of today's Employment Situation Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but I found this quote from the report to be the most interesting [emphasis added]:

Employment in professional and business services continued to increase in May (+44,000). Notable job gains occurred in accounting and bookkeeping services (+18,000) and in computer systems design and related services (+8,000). Employment in temporary help services was little changed.

That's right, one third of the new jobs created in May went to the green eyeshade set. I think it's time to applaud the Obama administration's efforts to expand the regulatory state by identifying the cost centers of American businesses as a new "growth" industry.