NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The unemployment rate took its biggest jump in more than two decades in May as employers once again cut jobs from U.S. payrolls, according to a government report Friday, showing a job market weaker than expected.
The unemployment rate soared to 5.5% from only 5% in April. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had only forecast the closely watched rate would rise to 5.1% in the month.
It was the biggest one-month jump in unemployment since February 1986, and the 5.5% rate is the highest level seen since October 2004.
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A jump of this magnitude, even over a period of several months, is considered a warning sign of a recession. The unemployment rate is now a full percentage point higher than a year ago.
The Labor Department also reported that there was a net loss of 49,000 jobs in May, compared to a revised loss of 28,000 jobs in April. That was actually a touch better than economists' forecast of a loss of 60,000 jobs, but it marked the fifth straight month that the economy has lost jobs.
Revisions to payroll estimates from earlier this year added 15,000 to the job losses in the first four months of the year. With the May loss, the economy has now shed 324,000 jobs so far this year, the worst start to a year since 2002, when the nation was still struggling with the after-effects of a recession.
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