Arthur Cashin of UBS Financial Services says, "The mood on the floor is one of apprehension not rally panic but "oh my goodness, I've seen this movie before and I didn't particularly like it."

Payrolls in May increased by 431,000 jobs, but the vast majority of those jobs went to temporary census workers. The private sector gained only 41,000 jobs -- a sign the economic recovery may not be as robust as hoped.

"Wall Street was expecting the private sector to do a lot better than they did here," said Dan Arnall. "Most people were expecting that regular businesses would add about 150,000 jobs during the month."

But while the numbers were disappointing, May represented the fifth straight month of job growth, and the unemployment rate actually fell from 9. 9 to 9.7 percent.

The construction sector shed jobs, but manufacturing, in a possible indicator of recovery, added 29,000 jobs.

Said President Barack Obama, "What these numbers do mean though is that we're moving in the right direction. The economic policies that we've put in place are working."

But not quickly enough for the 15 million Americans who are jobless --this marketing professional from Iowa, among them.

"It's a different feeling," says job hunter Jan Collins, "and never in a million years did I think I'd be doing this. But desperate times call for desperate measures."

The new report also found that 46% of the millions of unemployed Americans have been without a job for six months or longer, a stark reminder that many challenges remain.