Obama: May Job Hires "Evidence the Economy Is Getting Stronger"

That was in June of last year:

Lets look at the picture a year ago when the president was so optimistic.

"U.S. hiring grew in May, boosted by a phalanx of census workers, to bring down the unemployment rate to 9.7% - the same rate it was in the first three months of 2010. But private payrolls grew at the slowest pace since the start of the year.

President Obama cited the 431,000 new job hires in May as evidence that the economy is "getting stronger," despite the fact that the majority of jobs - 411,000 - were for temporary census workers. 

Such hiring peaked in May and will begin tailing off in June.

By contrast, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, hiring by private employers (including manufacturing, temporary help services and mining) slowed sharply.

May Jobs: A Terrible Report

They added just 41,000 jobs, down from 218,000 in April and the fewest since January. Construction employment declined.

Economists had forecast that employers would add 513,000 jobs in May.

Now lets see how The Great helmsman is doing a year later:

"The unemployment rate in May inched up to 9.1 percent from 9 percent, the Labor Department said Friday; when Obama took office, it was 7.8 percent.

The Conference Board, a business research group, predicts the rate will be 8.5 percent at the end of next year. That would mean Obama would face a higher unemployment rate than any president running for re-election since World War II.

"The recovery has not been derailed, but it's slow," said Michelle Meyer, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. "We're still in a muddle-through period."

Only 54,000 jobs were created in May, the fewest in eight months. By contrast, an average of 220,000 jobs were created in each of the previous three months. Private companies hired only 83,000 "

And for the true unemployment figures go here  "More People Are Unemployed than During the Great Depression"