Total U.S. jobs
National economy added 175,000 jobs in April
Nonfarm payroll job growth rose by 175,000 workers in April on a seasonally adjusted basis, a 6-month low. This was below consensus expectations of around 240,000 employees being added in the month, and it represented some slowing following the strong gain of 315,000 seen in March. Despite the easing, job growth remains solid, with 982,000 net new workers added year to date.
Overall, these data show that the labor market remains a bright spot, helping to provide resilience to economic growth and for increased spending. Nonfarm payroll employment has risen for 40 consecutive months, adding 15.8 million jobs in that period. As a result of the steady gains, total U.S. nonfarm payroll employment stood nearly 6.0 million (or 3.9%) above the February 2020 pre-pandemic peak, rising to a new record level: 158.3 million.
The unemployment rate ticked up from 3.8% in March to 3.9% in April, with the number of unemployed Americans edging up from 6,429,000 to 6,492,000. Encouragingly, the labor force participation rate remained at 62.7%.
Average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers among private sector workers rose 4.0% over the past 12 months, the slowest pace since May 2021, albeit at a still solid rate. The labor market remains tight but has seen some cooling over the past couple of years. For reference, year-over-year earnings growth peaked at 7.0% in March 2022.
Job growth continued across both the private and public sectors in April. The private sector added a net 167,000 jobs in April, while government employment increased by 8,000. Here is a breakdown of the employment growth in April by sector (ranked from highest to least):
• Private education and health services (up 95,000)
• Trade, transportation and utilities (up 52,000, including 20,100 for retail sales)
• Construction (up 9,000)
• Manufacturing (up 8,000)
• Other services (up 7,000)
• Financial activities (up 6,000)
• State government (up 6,000)
• Leisure and hospitality (up 5,000, including 6,600 for eating and drinking places)
• Federal government (up 2,000)
• Local government (unchanged)
• Mining and logging (down 3,000)
• Professional and business services (down 4,000)
• Information (down 8,000)
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