Unemployment Back Up to 8.2%

Today's jobs report brings very unwelcome news: US employers added just 69,000 jobs last month, the lowest number in a year, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 8.2% from April's 8.1%, the first increase in 11 months. The Labor Department also had grim news for the previous two months: The economy did not create nearly as many jobs as was originally thought, and those figures have been revised down to show 49,000 fewer jobs created. That means we're averaging 73,000 jobs per month for the last two months, which is just one-third of the jobs added per month in the first quarter, the AP reports.

"This is bad. Real bad," writes Steven Russolillo on the Wall Street Journal's live blog. "A third straight lackluster monthly report, and this is the worst of the three." Jonathan Cheng calls the ensuing market response "ugly," with Dow futures down 202 points, and adds that—needless to say—"this is not going to be well-received at the White House." These numbers favor "the former governor from Massachusetts." (More unemployment stories.)