PHONEY-BALONEY JOBS: “US stock futures extended their losses Friday after a report showed fewer jobs were added to nonfarm payrolls last month and most of those were temporary census workers. US employers added 430,000 jobs to nonfarm payrolls in May, but 411,000 of those were temporary census workers. That number was also well short of the more than 500,000 economists had expected. The unemployment rate, however, fell to 9.7 percent from 9.9 percent in April.” Which was the goal, I suspect.

UPDATE: Not getting very good press. Some highlights from this AP story: “A wave of census hiring lifted payrolls by 431,000 in May, but job creation by private companies grew at the slowest pace since the start of the year. The unemployment rate dipped to 9.7 percent as people gave up searching for work. . . . Virtually all the job creation in May came from the hiring of 411,000 census workers. Such hiring peaked in May and will begin tailing off in June.”