We now return to our regularly scheduled job bust. The Labor Department on Friday reported that the total number of nonfarm payroll jobs grew in May by only 78,000 last month, half of what many economists were predicting, and less than a third of April's surprisingly robust 274,000 gain. This dashesat least temporarilyinvestors' cautious optimism of late about the economy's strength.  Preliminary month-to-month figures, which can be revised substantially, have to be looked at with a jaundiced eye. Job growth in May could turn out to have been much stronger and smoother in future updates. But any revision is unlikely to change a basic fact: This is the most anemic job expansion since World War II. By the standard of past booms, job growth since the end of the 2001 recession should have been double to six times better than what we've seen so far. (For more details, see graph Job Growth: The Phantom Economic Expansion.)  Adding to the uncertainty about the soundness and the stamina of the country's economic recovery is the fact that much of the job growth is in the housing and health-care sectors. A whopping 48% of private-sector jobs created since the end of the recession in November 2001almost one out of every twowas housing related, according to Labor Department data culled by analyst Sophia Koropeckyj at Economy.com, a research firm. And in recent weeks, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has described the housing market as "frothy."  And while the unemployment rate in May dipped to 5.1%, its lowest level in more than three years, much of that decline over the past year reflects an exodus of Americans who've officially stopped looking for work and are therefore not defined as unemployed. The number of factory jobs, and even the number of consulting, temporary, and other business-service jobs shrank last month. Not good.  While the payroll survey of businesses show weak job growth, the survey of households suggested stronger growth. That is possible evidence that harder-to-track small businesses are doing a lot better than easier-to-track corporations. But financial markets, at the moment, are interpreting the report overall, which includes both surveys, as a dud. The dollar and Treasury bond yields are down, and investors in the futures markets are betting the Federal Reserve won't be raising short-term interest rates as much as many had expected.  The figures continue an off-and-on-again pattern of pokey, haphazard, and lackadaisical growth in payroll jobs that has frustrated economists for more than three years. It suggests many companiesmore than 40 months into this expansionremain either too shell-shocked, fearful of risk, or leery of rising energy and health-care costs to ramp up hiring in any consistent way. Payroll numbers have yet to show robust, uninterrupted month-to-month gain in the 200,000-plus range of old.  And what job growth there is appears increasingly dependent on the booming housing and health-care sectors. They've shown the sharpest growth over the past year and, with a few exceptions, were the only major sectors to show significant growth in May.  Many Americans have sought to cash in on this real estate boom by becoming part-time or full-time investors, mortgage brokers, real-estate agentsyou name it. But even the estimate that almost one out of every two new private-sector jobs is being created in the housing sector may be conservative. Economy.com's Koropeckyj said she excluded from her data several groups that clearly enjoy spillover effects, such as repair and maintenance crews, and real estate lawyers.  In the last expansion, the housing market's contribution to private-sector job growth averaged about 14%. It carries more than three times as much weight now. Whether, when and how the real estate boom will end is anyone's guesspredictions of its demise have been wrong for years, and continuing low interest rates (hardly likely to be changed by today's weak job figures) promises to keep the sector afloat for some time to come.  But housing help us, if real estate's foundations ever start to sag, look out below.  Next: Graph: Job Growth: The Phantom Economic Expansion
The U.S. added only 78,000 new jobs last month, and many were in the housing sector, which some economists think is ripe for a correction.