Bloomberg (06/01/12) Timothy Homan

The U.S. added just 69,000 jobs in May, the smallest increase in a year, the government reported Friday. The increase was less even than the most-pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. The median estimate called for a 150,000 May advance. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, rose to 8.2% from 8.1%, mainly because more people entered the labor force even as hiring slowed. The average workweek fell 0.1 hour to 34.4 in May, while average hourly earnings climbed two cents to $23.41. Employment gains for April and March were revised lower. The number of new jobs created in April was reduced to 77,000 from an original estimate of 115,000, while March’s figure was trimmed to 143,000 from 154,000.