The best news about the dismal May employment report may be that it could have been a whole lot worse.

Manufacturing payrolls fell 26,000 last month — no surprise as they’ve now fallen almost two-straight years.

What’s unusual, economists said, is that given the weakness in domestic demand they’re not falling even more. In 2001, the last time the U.S. was in a recession, manufacturing lost an average of over 100,000 jobs per month. So far in 2008, it’s lost an average of 41,000.

Source: Wall Street Journal

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