U.S. unemployment rate falls to seven-year low
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The U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs in April, and the nation’s unemployment rate edged down to 5.4 percent, the lowest point since May of 2008, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday in its widely watched monthly report.
Unemployment was at 5.5 percent in March.
The new rate matches market expectations, while the number of jobs gained beat expectations by about 5,000, according to data at Yahoo Finance. The job gains were a marked turnaround from March’s relatively paltry gain of 85,000 jobs. The BLS had earlier pegged the March jobs gain at 126,000, but revised it Friday to 85,000.
Professional and business services added the most positions in April at 62,000, followed by health care (45,000), construction (45,000), and transportation and warehousing (15,000), the BLS reported.
Several sectors were unchanged in the numbers of jobs added: manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, information, financial services, leisure and hospitality, and government. The number of mining jobs, which includes oil and gas extraction, dropped by 15,000.
The average U.S. workweek remained at 34.5 hours, and the average hourly earnings rose by 3 cents to $24.87.
Job gains have averaged 191,000 per month over the last three months, according to the BLS.
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