Jobless rate increases but payrolls remain strong in April

According to the Friday May 6 Labor Department report, 244,000 new jobs were added in April, which was both higher than what economists had predicted and greater than the number of new jobs added in March, which was 221,000.

Though that may seem positive, there are still indicators that the economic recovery is still in a struggling phase, as the rate of unemployment returned to 9 percent in April after having been 8.8 percent in March.  These statistics were gathered by the Labor Department by surveying households (as opposed to employers), which can result in some volatility in the numbers.

The private sector created more jobs in April than it had in five years: 268,000.  This is very important to the economy at the moment as government employees continue to be laid off.  These positions were being created in many different sectors, including manufacturing, leisure and hospitality, health care, and retail.  When compared to the average for April, 2010, which was 78,000, this could appear promising.

Chief economist James F. O’Sullivan, from MF Global said “This is very encouraging for the sustainability of the recovery”.

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Posted by David Goldman on May 8 2011. Filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.