According to the Los Angeles Times, the nation’s unemployment rate has gotten worse in May, jumping to 5.5% from 5% in April– the largest one-month increase in more than twenty years and a further sign that the ailing economy is not yet on the mend.

“Altogether, the economy lost 49,000 jobs in May and 324,000 jobs since the beginning of the year — five straight months of contraction, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The economy must create about 100,000 jobs a month just to keep pace with population growth.

Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland, said the report was “the strongest evidence yet that the economic expansion has slipped into a recession of uncertain depth and duration.”

“The situation is even worse than this jump indicates,” Morici said. “A large number of adults have left the labor force in recent years. Factoring in the decline in the number of adults participating in the labor force, the unemployment rate is closer to 7%.”

Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at forecasting firm MFR Inc., in New York, said the unemployment rate may have been affected by graduation season.

“These figures should be taken with a grain of salt, as school-leavers probably skewed them this month,” Shapiro said in a note to subscribers.”

A lot of cities are taking a hit including losses in jobs in Philadelphia , Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, etc.