New York: US unemployment hit a four-year low in April as the US job market bucked off fears of a spring freeze and added 165,000 new jobs, the Labor Department said yesterday.
The unemployment rate fell to 7.5 percent in April, its lowest rate since December 2008. The news came after a week of worrying news for the US’s fragile economic recovery. Federal budget cuts, triggered by the sequestration spending cuts, started in March. Last month the US added just 88,000 new jobs.
Yesterday, the bureau of labour statistics revised the last three months figures substantially. March was revised higher to 138,000. February’s job growth revised up to 332,000, after previously being reported at 268,000.
The number of long-term unemployed — those jobless for 27 weeks or more — declined by 258,000 to 4.4 million and their share of the unemployed declined by 2.2 percentage points to 37.4 percent. Over the past 12 months, the number of long-term unemployed has decreased by 687,000, and their share has declined by 3.1 points.
The bureau of labor statistics said that over the prior 12 months, employment growth averaged has 169,000 per month. The figure is still low but after revisions but the latest report paints a far healthier picture of the jobs market than had been expected. Professional and business services added 73,000 jobs in April and has added 587,000 jobs over the past year, said the BLS.
Employment in temporary help services rose 31,000, professional and technical services added 23,000 and retail trade employment increased by 29,000 in April. The BLS said last month that retail had shed 24,000 jobs, triggering concerns about a slowdown in spending after the imposition of payroll taxes at the end of the year.
Ahead of the report economists had forecast that the economy added around 150,000 jobs in April.
On average employers added 200,000 jobs a month in the winter. But the pickup appeared to have stalled last month.
There was more bad news for the jobs markets this week with the release of the latest ADP survey of private hirings. According to ADP, the largest payroll processor, the US added 119,000 new jobs in the private sector during March. The figure was below economists’ forecasts of 150,000.
But Friday’s nonfarm figures showed private companies adding 176,000 jobs last month. Growth in the jobs market has to date been fueled almost entirely by the private sector as the US government has continued to cut positions.
This week the Federal Reserve gave its latest update on the economy and explicitly blamed government policy for the slow pace of the recovery.
After a two-day meeting, the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) said on Wednesday that despite signs of recovery “fiscal policy is restraining economic growth”.
US stock market futures - an early indication of how the markets will react - soared after the nonfarm figures were released.
Guardian News
