Jobs data likely to show burst of hiring

? The nation’s employers likely unleashed a wave of hiring last month, but it probably won’t be repeated.

Most of the jobs expected to have been generated in May were for census workers hired on a temporary basis by the federal government. Such hiring is expected to have peaked in May and then begin tailing off in June.

By contrast, hiring by private employers — the backbone of the economy — may have slowed down a bit in May.

All told, the Labor Department’s new employment snapshot released this morning is likely to be seen as further evidence that the job market is healing. Yet it’s still years away from normal health and from recouping the millions of jobs wiped out by the recent recession.