Unemployment reaches lowest level since 2001

Unemployment reached a new post-recession milestone in May, even as job gains missed the mark by a wide margin.

The U.S. unemployment rate is now 4.3%, the lowest it's been since 2001.

However, the economy only added 138,000 jobs last month, missing the 185,000 mark expected by analysts. Job gains have occurred with an average monthly gain of 181,000 over the past 12 months.

The number of unemployed persons has decreased by 774,000 since January (now totaling 6.9 million), though the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was essentially unchanged over the month at 1.7 million.

The labor force participation rate declined by 0.2% to 62.7% in May, and the number of persons employed part time for economic reasons was little-changed at 5.2 million.

Job-wise, most of the gains occurred in professional and business services (38,000), food services and drinking places (30,000), health care (24,000) and mining (7,000).

Building material and garden supply stores added 1,600 jobs last month, and residential specialty trade contractors added 5,100.