Nearly 14 million Americans are looking for work

(CBS News) 

ST. CLARE SHORES, Mich. - The economic recovery seems to be losing momentum. In May, private companies hired 83,000 new people. But local and state governments cut 28,000 jobs - that's the biggest drop since last November.

When all the other sectors are added in, there's a net gain of just 54,000 jobs. And as more people re-entered the job market, the unemployment rate edged up above nine percent.

CBS News senior business correspondent Anthony Mason reports nearly 14 million Americans are looking for work - and millions of those who have found jobs are working for less.

Moneywatch.com: May Jobs: A Lousy Report

Getting pizza once in a while is a "rare treat" for Michael and Melissa Barone. For nearly two years in St. Clare Shores, they were both out of work.

"We absolutely had zero money," Michael says. "We could hardly afford to even buy food."

Michael, who was laid off by Ford, just got a new job - but at half of his old pay. Melissa is still looking for a job.

"The work just isn't there," she says.

Now the job market is getting worse. After three straight months of strong growth hiring slowed sharply in May - raising new fears the economy is faltering.

Lakshman Achuthan of the Economic Cycle Research Institute says, "This isn't a soft patch. It's the beginning of a new throttling back in the pace of growth in the economy."

Achuthan sees a global industrial slowdown. Manufacturing, which had been leading the recovery, and had added jobs in each of the past six months, suddenly gave up 5,000 jobs in May.

Job growth is easing again. "We're not going to return to a quarter of a million jobs a month," Achuthan says. "That's not going to happen anytime soon."

The number of people out of work more than six months is growing again too - to more than 6 million people. That's 45 percent of the unemployed.

Melissa Barone is on that list. When the Barones were both out of work, they lost their health insurance and their house.

"We started kind of panicking and really thinking outside the box," Melissa says. "What are we gonna do? What can we do? Last resort, we're going to live in our cars."

They've had to move in with Michael's mother. "I'm 44 years old and I'm having to move in with my mom," Michael says. "That's another big hit on your ego."

Melissa, who previously worked for the government, is now studying to be a nurse. In these tough years, the Barones say all that saved them were their unemployment checks.

"Unemployment benefits have been a godsend," Michael says. "And I thank God everyday for them and every extension that was given."

Melissa's benefits run out in July. And Michigan is one of four states that have passed laws to cut the length of time you can claim state unemployment. Nearly 8 million Americans are now drawing unemployment checks.

[LeemanBrothaz]

WALL STREET bankers release music video "Greed Is Good" blaming consumer behavior for the financial crisis -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoMpcz0S3hc

[voltaic1]

As usual the MSM misses the mark when it comes to reporting unemployment numbers. There are 13.9 million regular unemployed, there are 2.2 million who are marginally attached to the labor force who want to work, but aren't considered in the unemployment of 9.1%. There are 8.6 million underemployed. Those are people who want full-time work, but are working less than 34 hours a week. As a result, the underemployed are probably looking for full-time work. So in total, there are at least 24.6 million people who want full-time work! Why is the media so unable to report anything beyond the simple BLS 9.1% unemployment rate?? These "experts" should be embarrassed by their inability to see the bigger picture and report accurately. And they wonder why they are losing audience.

[Beeslee3963]

It's been an unbelievable roller coaster ride for us like so many other millions.Same story a hundred times over.We both lost our jobs,home,car,401 K, our life savings and most everything else we ever worked for.My hubby has only found a seasonal job after searching for over 2 years.I still haven't found employment and my unemployment ended last September.Every day is like a nightmare just trying to survive day to day.We're very lucky that our children are grown and on their own.Unfortunately, they aren't in any position to help us out.They can barely make it on their own.My heart aches for families with small children in this position.
We never hear any plans about how our government plans to create jobs to get this country rolling again.At our ages 61 & nearly 59, we feel helpless at times not knowing how this will all unfold.We are holding on by a thread and barely sliding by trying to avoid becoming homeless.After working so hard for over 40 yrs,we were looking forward to enjoying our senior years together.Now, with everything lost, we have nothing but frustration, anger and stress.We will never gain back what was lost.Our "American Dream" is now "Our American Nightmare".We will never understand how our government can just turn their backs on the millions of unemployed in the same position.Our country will never be the same again unless we get rid of all politicians presently in office and replace them with new,fresh faces and ideas.

[vielmann]

Nice to see that the tax cuts for the uber wealthy are really producing tons of jobs....in Sri Lanka.

[jcnbma]

You can thank George Bush for driving us off a cliff in 2008. Not even The Almighty could fix that mess in 3 years. It's going to take 10 years to recover.

[RobAla]

I woke up to President Obama's lack of compassion and lack of understanding of economy shortly after he took office. The stock took a massive plunge, and a reporter asked he what he thought about it. President Obama said that he didn't watch the stock market, that it was like watching a political poll.

It is nothing like watching a political poll. When the stock market dropped, people lost much of their life savings and many retired people who were supplementing Social Security with stock earners found that they had to go back to work. Retirement accounts were nailed. I watched older people retire, then return back to work. Unemployment soared, and retirees going back to work made it even worse.

In that ridiculous answer, President Obama told me that he had ZERO understanding of the economy and even worse - he didn't didn't care. He didn't care that Americans lost their hard earned life savings; that wasn't his concern. His concern was how to grow the federal government. His concern was how to "remake" America into HIS vision of what he wanted it to be. He did not give a rat's rear end about the suffering people of the United States.

It's time a lot of people woke up to the damaging impact of this President, and in 2012 he needs to go back to Chicago.

[skepticalJM]

There are a lot more out of work than what is reported; they stop counting you out of work after a year, and many have retired early to offset not finding jobs. Yet the useless wars continue, and the Tea Party wants to bring us back to the slave trading days of the founding fathers. I'll grant them this, the slaves were taken care of better than this society takes care of its citizens today.

[brnfream]

When is our senate and congress going to sart earning thier fabulous pay checks. We want jobs brought back to the USA. IF you can't do the job, it is time for you to step aside. We need people who work for US in the house and senate.

[larryp0304]

Give Obama ANOTHER 4 years and he'll have unemployment over 10%. How much more is it going to take for you Independents to realize this guy is BRUTAL?

How much more FACTUAL info without the spin do you want? The list of negative economic numbers by Obama's policies are FRIGHTENING!

[ksmit2]

Well, this is really a bad thing and these poor folks have had a terrible
time. Each day, I see half-awake employees at large box stores, gainfully
employed, not particularly shining fast food employees making $10 an hour
and gainfully employed. At the end of the day are they really saying that
they can't compete with these folks for jobs, or is it that these paying
jobs just aren't good enough. We have a McDonalds in Laffayette La that
had to recruit employees from Romania and fly them in to work at their
restaurants because there were not enough local people interested in
working. Folks, a job that pays a third of what you WERE making is still
better than ZERO. Americans can't get their head around that. That's half
the problem!

[brnfream]

Romania? How about the state next to you? Or the one on the other side? I don't buy this.