Akkam’s Razor

The payrolls figure and the unemployment rate come from two different economic surveys, which can sometimes provide _ as in Friday's case _ a conflicting picture of what is happening in the labor market.

The seasonally adjusted overall civilian unemployment rate _ 4.6 percent in May _ is based on a survey of 60,000 households. It showed that 288,000 people said they found employment last month, outpacing the number of people who couldn't find work.

Economists tend to put more stock, however, in the much broader business survey of 400,000 work sites that is used to calculate the payroll figures.

In May, job cuts at factories, retailing and other fields tempered job gains in education and health care, financial activities and elsewhere.

The payrolls performance was much weaker than the 170,000 jobs that economists were forecasting would be added in May. They also were predicting the unemployment rate to hold steady at 4.7 percent.