Despite anticipation of a spring-into-summer swoon, the U.S. economy continued to create jobs at a relatively steady pace in May, adding 175,000 positions as the unemployment rate ticked higher to 7.6 percent.
Economists expected nonfarm payrolls to grow by 170,000 in the month after an initial reading of 165,000 in April, which was lowered to 149,000.
An alternative unemployment measure that includes the underemployed and those who have quit looking edged lower to 13.8 percent.
"The employment report does not look too bad after all, which should soothe recent concerns over a slowing for the US economy in response to domestic fiscal policy and external headwinds," Andrew Wilkinson, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak, said of the report.