Expect seemingly excellent job growth news on Friday but don’t get too excited. According to The Hill, temporary hires by the Census Bureau will greatly inflate the numbers, with the agency’s hires consuming as many as 2/3 of the jobs “created”. The positions will be terminated after the completion of the 2010 Census.

Hiring by the U.S. Census Bureau is expected to spike May’s job figures dramatically.

Economist Mark Zandi of Moody’s.com projects the economy will add 575,000 jobs in May, while the Economic Policy Institute’s (EPI) rough projection is for 560,000 jobs. …

Vice President Joe Biden, speaking at a Democratic fundraiser on Tuesday, touted what he said would be a positive report for Democrats, who are hoping a revitalized economy will help them in this fall’s elections. He said the May report would be “well beyond” the 290,000 jobs created in April, according to Reuters.

The numbers pose a problem for the administration, however, in terms of their reflection of economic growth.

Zandi expects that only 150,000 of the jobs created in May will come from the private sector, while 425,000 new jobs are sparked by the once-a-decade census.

Those jobs are temporary ones that will disappear as the Census completes the process of collecting data from people who did not mail in their forms.

April found 224,000 private sector jobs created while, if Zandi is correct, May found only 150,000 of the same. That would be a drop in job creation of 74,000 over one month. Let’s repeat that: If Moody’s projection is accurate, fewer private sector jobs will have been created in May than in April.

But that reality will be hidden by the creation of temporary Census jobs that will be eliminated, sending the employees back to the unemployment line, well before the end of the year. These are not — repeat not — stable jobs. At most, they provide a temporary paycheck signed by the American taxpayer.

Via Hot Air.