The leap in the unemployment rate also appeared to cool talk that the Federal Reserve might soon begin inching up interest rates in an effort to choke off rising prices for gasoline, food and other goods, and to support the weak dollar. The Fed policy board meets again at the end of the month.

“I don’t think we’ll be seeing Ben Bernanke defending the dollar anytime soon,” said Michael T. Darda, chief economist at the research and trading firm MKM Partners, who has worried that the Fed has stoked inflation by lowering interest rates too aggressively. “The Fed more than anything else puts emphasis on the labor market indicators. This will make it very difficult for the Fed to take back the easing in an expeditious fashion.”

For six months, the Fed has been steadily lowering interest rates, which tends to spur borrowing and investment, in an effort to bolster the economy. As inflation fears have grown, so have calls in some quarters that the Fed alter its course. That conversation has been amplified by talk on Wall Street that the economy appeared to be stabilizing, and banks were past the worst of their mortgage-related woes.

But Friday’s report injected a substantial note of gloom into that view.

“We simply haven’t had five months of net job losses without being in a recession,” said Jared Bernstein, senior economist at the labor-oriented Economic Policy Institute in Washington.

The details of the report fleshed out how economic troubles that began with the fall of real estate prices and then spread to the construction industry have continued to ripple out to other areas of the economy. Many homeowners who are no longer able to borrow against the values of their houses have been cutting their spending, shrinking sales at shopping malls, grocery stores and home improvement outlets. That has prompted to businesses to cut payrolls, taking more purchasing power out of the economy.

Construction again led the way down in May, shedding 34,000 more jobs, according to the report. Profession and business services  which includes lawyers, accounts, architects and management consultants  declined by 39,000.

Manufacturing lost 26,000 jobs as the sector continued its steady decline. Retail payrolls shrunk by 27,000 jobs, and transportation and warehousing by 10,500.