Pasadena, CA -- (SBWIRE) --06/06/2011 -- May turned out to be a disappointing month in terms of jobs creation, with only 54,000 net jobs created.

The number was the lowest in eight months and has pushed the unemployment rate back to 9.1 percent. The Labor Department blamed it on the high gas prices and the hit the Japanese economy took because of the tsunami.

According to the BLS, there are 13.9 million Americans unemployed and looking for work. Then there are 8.5 million who want a full-time job but can only find part-time work. Finally, there are 2.2 million jobless Americans who have given up looking for work.

The total number of jobs added by the private sector was 83,000. The major area for job losses was in local governments where 28,000 jobs were cut. Around 18,000 of them were in the education sector.

A total of 446,000 jobs have been eliminated since September 2008 in city and county governments nationwide. Other sectors of the economy which cut significant number of jobs in April were: manufacturing (5,000 jobs), retailers (8,500 jobs), and the leisure and hospitality industry which cut 6,000 jobs.

The average unemployed American has been jobless for 39.7 weeks, the longest period since the government started keeping records in 1948. Employers are reluctant to hire new workers, but jobs can still be found in small companies that are growing. These companies usually do not advertise on the public job boards to reduce their expenses. They post their job openings on their websites. Hound, a job search engine, has been successful in locating over 126,000 jobs directly from employer websites in the last seven days.