Employment rose by 115,000 jobs in April, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, surpassing economists’ expectations, as the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.3%.
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Most of the job gains happened in the health care, transportation and warehousing and retail trade industries, while federal government employment continued to decline under the Trump administration.
The professional and business services sector added 7,000 jobs in April, including 1,200 in accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services. Average hourly earnings in April rose 6 cents, or 0.2%, to $37.41. Over the past year, average hourly earnings have increased 3.6%.
The job numbers for February were revised down by 23,000, from a gain of 133,000 jobs to 156,000, while the change for March was revised up by 7,000, from 178,000 to 185,000. With both revisions, employment in February and March combined was 16,000 lower than the BLS previously reported.
“This was a good, not great report,” said Guy Berger, chief economist at Homebase, in a statement. “Despite a strong gain in nonfarm payroll employment, the household survey side of the report, including the unemployment rate, was a little worse than it was last month. Still, the job market has gotten off to a stronger start in the first four months of the year than I expected. In the coming months we’ll see how that strength withstands higher energy prices.”
Homebase’s data from over 100,000 small businesses and 2 million hourly employees showed hours worked dipped 0.7% in April, while turnover rose year-over-year for the first time since August, and hiring declines moderated.
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