Key Points:
- Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 175,000 in April and the unemployment rate rose 0.1% to 3.9%.
- Consensus among economists was a gain of 243,000 jobs.
- The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for February was revised down by 34,000, from +270,000 to +236,000, and the change for March was revised up by 12,000, from +303,000 to +315,000. With these revisions, employment in February and March combined is 22,000 lower than previously reported.
- Health care added 56,000 jobs in April, employment in social assistance increased by 31,000, transportation and warehousing rose by 22,000, and retail trade added 20,000 jobs.
- In April, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by $0.07 to $34.75.
- The average workweek for all private employees edged down by 0.1 hours to 34.3 hours in April.
- The labor force participation rate was unchanged at 62.7% and is 0.7% below its February 2020 level.
- In April, the unemployed population was flat at 6.5 million but job openings fell to 8.5 million in March.