The unemployment rate, which jumped in May by half a percentage point, stayed steady at 5.5 percent. The Labor Department also subtracted an additional 52,000 jobs from its initial estimates in May and April.

The job cuts came across a range of industries, affecting bankers, construction workers, and manufacturers.The report is the latest signal that the nation is struggling with one of the worst downturns in a generation. As job losses mount, even those still on payrolls have felt the pain: employers are cutting hours for their full-time employees and shrinking salaries just as workers face record-high prices for gasoline and food.

Wage growth decelerated, as the average weekly paycheck of rank-and-file workers grew by 2.8 percent, down from 3.2 percent in May, compared to a year ago. That is below the rate of inflation, which is currently at a 4.2 percent annual rate. (The statistic is calculated for about 80 percent of the work force.)

“The labor market is clearly deteriorating, and it’s highly likely to keep deteriorating,” said Andrew Tilton, an economist at Goldman Sachs, said earlier this week. “It’s clear that the housing downturn and credit crunch are still very much under way. Clearly, there are more jobs to be lost in housing, finance and construction — hundreds of thousands of more jobs to be lost collectively.”

The softening job market has prompted millions of families to reduce their spending, further hurting businesses and the economy as a whole. Soaring prices for food and gasoline are overwhelming modest wage gains for most workers, leaving households with even less money to spend.

Last month, the unemployment rate jumped by half a percentage point, the sharpest one-month spike in 22 years. Economists attributed the jump to a large influx of Americans who wre unemployed but seeking work after spending several months not looking for a job.

The national unemployment rate climbed a full percentage point over the last year to 5.5 percent in May, according to the Labor Department. That does not include people who are jobless and have given up looking for work, or people who have been bumped to part-time jobs from full-time. Add in those people and the so-called underemployment rate rises to 9.7 percent, up from 8.3 percent in May 2007, according to the Labor Department.

Goldman Sachs forecasts that the unemployment rate will peak at 6.4 percent late in 2009 before the picture improves, meaning that the painful process of shedding jobs may be only half-way complete.