National employment numbers released this morning show that the labor market continued to deteriorate in May. Another 787,000 individuals joined the ranks of the unemployed, and the national unemployment rate reached 9.4 percent.

"May was another lousy month for the labor market," says John Quinterno, a researcher with the North Carolina Justice Center's Budget & Tax Center. "For the 17th consecutive month, employers in most major industries eliminated more jobs than they created. Since the recession's start, 6 million net jobs have been lost."

Widespread job losses have led to rising unemployment. In May, 14.5 million Americans - 9.4 percent of the labor force - were unemployed. Moreover, the underemployment rate - a more telling measure of labor market weakness - reached a staggering level of 16.4 percent.

"Although today's employment report is less severe than those of recent months, it is nevertheless alarming," adds Quinterno. "The report offers little evidence that the labor market has stabilized and instead suggests a future of mounting job losses and rising unemployment."

Quinterno expects that the national numbers are a preview of what is in store for North Carolina when the state data for May are released later in the month. North Carolina has one of the nation's weakest labor markets.

Since the recession's start, North Carolina employers have eliminated, on net, 223,000 positions. Some 84 percent of the net losses have occurred just since October 2008. Job losses have contributed to a dramatic jump in the unemployment rate, which has risen to 10.8 percent from 4.7 percent since the beginning of the recession.

"North Carolina's labor market will deteriorate even further if the General Assembly relies upon a cuts-only approach to balancing the budget," explains Quinterno. "The budget under consideration would exacerbate the situation by removing even more demand for goods and services from the economy. This would happen by reducing public-sector purchases from private enterprises and directly eliminating thousands of public-sector jobs. The result would be more months of terrible employment reports."