Is the U.S. economic recovery stalling?

The Labor Department reported on June 1 that the nation’s economy added only 69,000 jobs in May, bringing the unemployment rate to 8.2 percent. Here, a look at the fallout from our troubled economy and the troubles of economies overseas.

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Ford Motors has recently said that as Europe's debt crisis slogs on, they've noticed that Europeans are buying fewer of their vehicles. Here, employees work on Ford Focus vehicles at an assembly plant in Wayne, Mich.

Jeff Kowalsky / BLOOMBERG

June 1, 2012

A view of a PLS loan store in downtown Chicago that is accepting job applications. Chicago-based PLS Financial Services manages more than 300 service centers across the country and employs more than 3,000 workers. PLS is one of the fastest growing organizations in the check-cashing industry and is a Western Union money-transfer agent. The jobless rate inched up in May to 8.2 percent as the economy added 69,000 jobs, the weakest showing since May 2011. The Labor Department also lowered the number of jobs created in the previous two months.

Carlos Javier Ortiz / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

June 1, 2012

Willie Barbee 57, has been out of a full-time job for almost a decade. Barbee gets side jobs here and there but is mostly unemployed and homeless. He sings in the streets of downtown Chicago for money.

Carlos Javier Ortiz / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

June 1, 2012

The abandoned Atlantic Bank building in downtown Chicago.

Carlos Javier Ortiz / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

May 31, 2012

Job-seeker Aaron Moore completes a job application at Los Angeles Mission's 11th annual Skid Row Career Fair. According to a Labor Department report, the nation's jobless rate ticked up to 8.2 percent, with a disappointing 69,000 jobs added.

Kevork Djansezian / GETTY IMAGES

May 31, 2012

Job-seekers search for opportunities at the Skid Row Career Fair in Los Angeles. The monthly jobs report follows other discouraging data about the state of the U.S. economy: GDP growth was revised downward from a rate of 2.2 percent to 1.9 percent, and weekly jobless claims hit a five-week high.

Damian Dovarganes / AP

In Utica, N.Y., a veteran speaks with Erin Zuck at the Hiring Our Heroes Veterans/Military job fair on May 15, 2012. President Obama has been a touting a plan to give businesses tax breaks for hiring veterans. Still, veterans are unemployed at a higher rate than their civilian counterparts.

Spencer Platt / GETTY IMAGES

Loren Taylor of the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign participates in a protest against home foreclosures outside a Citibank branch on May 16, 2012. The failure of the housing market to pick up steam has been one of the chief drags on the nation's economic recovery. Recent data from RealtyTrac show that foreclosures made up 26 percent of home sales in the first quarter and that short sales hit a three-year high.

Scott Olson / GETTY IMAGES

Whitney Maxey and others help clean up in front of a foreclosed home in Miami on May 3, 2012. According to the Miami Workers Center, the house is owned by the Bank of America. The residents of the Liberty City neighborhood came together to clean up the abandoned property and planned on delivering the collected trash to a Bank of America branch. As The Washington Post's Brady Dennis reported last year, "Thousands of abandoned and vacant properties, many in legal limbo, are plaguing neighborhoods across the country. The result has weighed down already falling home values, attracted crime and vagrancy, and forced cash-strapped municipalities to tap dwindling budgets to care for decaying houses."

Joe Raedle / GETTY IMAGES

A teenager fills out an application at a job fair sponsored on May 3, 2012, in Queens. Because the economy has been a central focus of the presidential election, the weak May unemployment report is not good news for the Obama campaign.

Spencer Platt / GETTY IMAGES

Job seekers attend an orientation meeting inside a church in Los Angeles on May 31, 2012. Immediately after May's dismal jobs report was released, stock futures dropped.

Kevork Djansezian / GETTY IMAGES

Job seeker Sean Patton picks up fliers during a career fair on May 31, 2012, in Los Angeles. Steven Ricchiuto, chief economist at Mizuho Securities, summed up the nation's economic situation this way: “The domestic economy has repeatedly looked as if it was finally gaining traction, only to be beaten back again by the unique problems that keep surfacing during the recovery process.”

Kevork Djansezian / GETTY IMAGES

Job seekers fill out applications at a job fair in Queens on May 3, 2012. The May jobs report marked the first time the unemployment rate has gone up in 11 months and showed the fewest number of jobs created in a year.

Spencer Platt / GETTY IMAGES

A Hawkins-Welwood Homes employee applies the final touches to the foundation of a townhouse in Plano, Tex. The construction industry shed 28,000 jobs in May, its worst showing since 2010.

Tony Gutierrez / AP

FEATURED PHOTO GALLERIES

epa03708924 Franziska (C) wears a helmet and carries a shield during the recreation of The Battle of the Teutoburg Museum in Bramsche, Germany, 20 May 2013. The everyday life of Romans and the Germanic people is depicted at Museum Park Kalkriese during the Romans and Germanic people days. EPA/Friso Gentsch

Photos of the day

Battle of Teutoburg Forest reenactment, Mars Curiosity rover drilling, massive tornado strikes Moore, Oklahoma and more.

A Burrowing owl tries to perch on a protective rope in a public park in Cooper City, Fla. Monday, May 20, 2013 as rain falls. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter)

Animal views

Fun and fascinating creatures around the world.

ANNAPOLIS, MD - MAY 20: The Herndon Monument Climb is the traditional culmination of plebe year at the United States Naval Academy. The plebes climb to the top of the lard-covered 21 foot high monument and remove the 'dixie cup' hat at the top replacing it with an upperclassman's hat. After completing this, the freshmen are called 'fourth class midshipmen.' This class completed the task in 1 hour 32 minutes and 43 seconds. The hat was placed by Patrick Lien from Orlando. (Photo by Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

The Herndon Climb

The Herndon Monument climb is the traditional culmination of plebe year at the U.S. Naval Academy.

MOORE, UNITED STATES: Joey Dean displays some two dozen eggs he found among the remains of his friend Lee Tesney's house in Moore, OK, 06 May 1999. Official sources indicated that 41 people died and more than 500 people were injured in what was classified as an F5 tornado, the most severe type of tornado, with winds of more than 250 miles per hour which ravaged the southern Oklahoma City region 03 May. (ELECTRONIC IMAGE) AFP PHOTO/Hector MATA (Photo credit should read HECTOR MATA/AFP/Getty Images)

Okla. tornado loosely followed path of 1999 twister

Monday’s powerful tornado in suburban Oklahoma City loosely followed the path of a killer twister that slammed the area in May 1999.

Lea Bessinger salvages a picture of Jesus as she and her son Josh Bessinger sort through the rubble of the elder Bessinger's tornado-ravaged home Tuesday, May 21, 2013, in Moore, Okla. A huge tornado roared through the Oklahoma City suburb Monday, flattening an entire neighborhoods and destroying an elementary school with a direct blow as children and teachers huddled against winds. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Tornado near Oklahoma City causes more damage

Rescue workers are searching for survivors after a twister carved a long path of destruction in a suburb of Oklahoma City. It was part of the...

FILE - In this undated publicity file photo, members of the Doors, from left, John Densmore, Robbie Krieger, Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison, pose for a portrait. Manzarek, the keyboardist who was a founding member of The Doors, has died at 74. Publicist Heidi Robinson-Fitzgerald says in a news release that Manzarek died Monday, May 20, 2013, at the RoMed Clinic in Rosenheim, Germany, surrounded by his family. (AP Photo, File)

Ray Manzarek, founding member of the Doors, dies at 74

Manzarek co-founded the Doors after meeting then-poet Jim Morrison in California. The band went on to become one of the most successful rock-and-roll...

US actress Rosario Dawson smiles on May 20, 2013 as she arrives for the screening of the film 'Wara No Tate' (Shield of Straw) presented in Competition at the 66th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes. Cannes, one of the world's top film festivals, opened on May 15 and will climax on May 26 with awards selected by a jury headed this year by Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg. AFP PHOTO / ALBERTO PIZZOLIALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images

Eye on entertainment

Rosario Dawson, Alec Baldwin, Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Bow Wow, Amy Poehler and more.

A man walks on sulphur and mineral salt formations near Dallol in the Danakil Depression, northern Ethiopia April 22, 2013. The Danakil Depression in Ethiopia is one of the hottest and harshest environments on earth, with an average annual temperature of 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34.4 Celsius). For centuries, merchants have travelled there with caravans of camels to collect salt from the surface of the vast desert basin. The mineral is extracted and shaped into slabs, then loaded onto the animals before being transported back across the desert so that it can be sold around the country. Picture taken April 22, 2013. REUTERS/Siegfried Modola (ETHIOPIA - Tags: BUSINESS SOCIETY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

ATTENTION EDITORS: PICTURE 2 OF 30 FOR PACKAGE 'ETHIOPIA'S ANCIENT SALT TRAIL'
SEARCH 'DANAKIL DEPRESSION' FOR ALL

Ethiopia’s salt trail

For centuries, merchants have traveled to Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression with caravans of camels to collect salt from the surface of the vast desert basin. The mineral is extracted...

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