Jobless rate dips, job growth slows in May

WASHINGTON -- Job growth slowed nearly to a crawl in May, with new hiring registering the smallest gain in almost two years. The unemployment rate dipped to a low 5.1 percent, however. The latest employment snapshot, released by the Labor Department on Friday, kept up the recent pattern of choppy job creation. Employers boosted payrolls by just 78,000 after a hiring spurt of 274,000 in April.

Top U.S. automakers order cutbacks

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., the nation's two biggest automakers, ordered fresh production cutbacks this week after they again lost business and valuable market share to Asian rivals in May. Some of their key suppliers have seen orders dwindle so much they've had to declare bankruptcy.

Sale of Pulitzer papers to Lee completed

ST. LOUIS -- Lee Enterprises Inc. completed its $1.46 billion purchase of fellow newspaper publisher Pulitzer Inc. on Friday, closing the books on a family-run company founded 127 years ago. Shareholders of St. Louis-based Pulitzer gathered in New York, where they approved the merger announced in January. Lee shareholders earlier agreed to the deal that will create the nation's seventh-largest newspaper company in terms of circulation and fourth-largest in terms of number of newspapers.

-- From wire reports