Re: 223k jobs added in April
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mixed bag of news
()
Date: May 08, 2015 04:20PM
Not bad, though a mixed bag of news:
A new report shows that the American employment situation marginally improved in April, but new revisions to prior reports make March’s meager job gains look even worse. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday morning that U.S. non-farm employers added 223,000 jobs in April, bringing the unemployment rate down to 5.4% from 5.5%. The BLS also said Friday that employers added just 85,000 jobs in March, down from the original 126,000 estimate.
The 223,000 jobs added in April was just below the economist consensus, which was calling for job gains of 224,000.
Other notable figures from the BLS report include the number of long-term unemployed — that is, people who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more — which held steady at 2.5 million, a figure that accounts for 29% of the unemployed population in the country.
Earlier in the week, payroll provider ADP reported that the U.S. added 169,000 private sector jobs from March to April, a lower figure than its initial 189,000 estimate. This is the second month in a row that the ADP report showed job growth of less than 200,000, and the April report marks the fifth month in a row that private sector non-farm payroll job growth slowed.
Still, the labor market is hardly cooking. Jim O'Sullivan, chief U.S. economist with High Frequency Economics, described last month's job numbers as "slightly disappointing," noting that monthly payroll gains have averaged 194,000 this year, down from 260,000 in 2014.
For most Americans, perhaps the biggest economic obstacle has been the weak increase in their pay. Hourly earnings have averaged just above 2 percent during the halting recovery that has followed the housing crash, rather than the 3-4 percent more typical after a recession.
Worker earnings remain stagnant, the latest job figures make clear. Average hourly pay inched up only 0.1 percent in April, or 3 cents to $24.87, and is growing at an annualized rate of 2.2 percent, the Labor Department said.