Although payroll job growth slowed sharply in May, with only 54,000 net jobs added, job growth this year is well ahead of 2010. Note: I'll have an update to my economic outlook later.

The first table below shows payroll job growth in 2010 and 2011 through May (excluding Census hires in 2010). The third column is total payroll growth for 2010.

Although job growth is sluggish relative to the slack in the labor market (with the unemployment rate at 9.1%), 2011 is clearly better than 2010 through May.

Payroll Jobs Added (000s)
	2010 through May1	2011 through May	Total for 2010
Total Payroll	304	783	955
Private Sector	358	908	1,173

¹ Excluding temporary decennial Census hires.

One of the reasons for the improvement this year is construction. Yes - construction!

For the first time since 2005, residential construction employment will probably be positive in 2011. Just eliminating the drag will help. Also residential investment will probably make a positive contribution to GDP growth for the first time since 2005 - mostly because of an increase in multi-family construction and home improvement. So this is a little bit of good news ... even though most of the recent economic news has been disappointing.

Annual Change in Construction Payroll jobs (000s)
Year	Total Construction Jobs	Residential	Non-Residential
2002	-85	88	-173
2003	127	161	-34
2004	290	230	60
2005	416	268	148
2006	152	-62	214
2007	-198	-273	75
2008	-787	-510	-277
2009	-1,053	-431	-622
2010	-149	-113	-36
May-11	31	22	9