The unemployment rate edged down slightly last month.  With employment growing by 431,000, the unemployment rate went from 9.9% in April to 9.7% in May, according to data released by The Department of Labor this morning.  Not startling changes, but it the figures do present a better employment picture than a year ago.  Here's a look at the unemployment rate and payroll employment from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Here's the latest on two areas we have been trying to track--marginally attached, and discouraged workers:

About 2.2 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in May, unchanged from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. 

Among the marginally attached, there were 1.1 million discouraged workers in May, up by 291,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.1 million persons marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

Read the BLS report here. 

And though it came out before the latest unemployment figures, Motoko Rich had an interesting and relevant article in the New York Times about how the actual employment picture may be rosier than the statistics are showing.  Rich profiles several people who have recently worked to enter the labor force again, after giving up some months ago.  Read A Jobless Rate Still Unaffected by New Hiring here.