The U.S. labor market decelerated in April, a sign employers may be turning cautious after the economy slowed early in the year.
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The unemployment rate for those with disabilities dipped just slightly to 10.7 percent last month, the agency said Friday in its monthly employment report.
Total job growth for February and March was revised down by 19,000. The overall unemployment rate remained 5.0%, and for the first time in over eight years, we’ve been at or below this level for seven consecutive months.
The slowdown in hiring came against the backdrop of weak economic growth, subdued productivity and corporate profits.
The job gain was down from the average increase of 200,000 over the past three months, which is the softest three-month pace since October. StatsCan notes that, since its peak in April 2014, the resource sector has shed 12.9 per cent of all its jobs, or about 50,000 positions.
“When taken in conjunction with this week’s ADP jobs survey and the Challenger, Gray and Christmas job cuts report, the loss of momentum in the jobs market is noticeable”, Mould continued.
The second half of 2015 saw a brief rise in wage growth, peaking at 2.6 percent year over year in December before easing back down. Speculation of whether the June Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting will bring an interest-rate hike has been high, but the April jobs report has put a damper on the expectations.
A separate measure of unemployment that includes those working part-time for economic reasons as well as discouraged workers – often referred to as the “real” unemployment rate – fell one-tenth of a point to 9.7 percent. The labor force had increased 2.4 million in the prior six months. While the unemployment rate held at 5.0 percent that was because people dropped out of the labor force.
He noted that paid employment rose by 23,000, while self-employment shrank by 25,000 in the month.
“The labor force really is increasing like nothing we’ve seen in a long, long time”, said Joe Nichols, economics policy analyst with the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions.
Hiring in education and health care remained steady, climbing 54,000 last month, above its three-month average of 49,000.
Although fewer jobs were added in April, wage gains improved, with private-sector hourly earnings increasing by 8 cents.
“Employment was never going to continue rising at more than 200,000 a month indefinitely”, said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics.
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Gains in construction employment slowed sharply, with the sector adding 1,000 jobs in April, after home building showed some signs of fatigue last month.
