At the same time, the economy as a whole added just 160,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate for the general population remained unchanged at 5 percent, the Labor Department said.
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Friday’s jobs report is hardly dire – economists say the USA needs to add roughly 100,000 jobs in a month to keep up with population growth – but marked a sharp snap back from the pace of the last half-year. That has stoked worries that the labor market may also stumble. The central bank might want to wait for more evidence that the economy is on the mend after a weak first quarter. “The impact of this uncertainty on the spring and summer housing market is not clear”. Experts anticipate a spring bounce, but the sluggish April jobs report suggests that pop is either delayed or not going to be that strong.
For the 12 months that ended April 30, average hourly earnings increased 2.5 percent, well above the low inflation rate. Te average workweek also increased marginally to 34.5 hours a week. The labor force had increased 2.4 million in the prior six months. The post-recession peak for the U-6 unemployment rate is 17.1 percent from October to December 2009 and then reached again in April 2010. Job growth slumped as recently as January only to snap back in the following months.
Job gains in higher-paid industries, such as management consulting and computer systems, picked up from March. The drop includes 11,300 fewer jobs in the goods-producing industries and 9,500 fewer in services sectors.
“Today’s jobs report suggests the labor market slowed, but did not falter, in April”.
Despite a lackluster April, job growth has been robust over the past year, averaging 232,000 per month, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Experts say it’s still too early to know the extent of the fallout from Alberta’s latest economic hardship, but some warn that prolonged shutdowns will likely be severe enough to curb Canada’s overall economic growth. While the unemployment rate held at 5.0 per cent that was because people dropped out of the labour force. While the report may or may not be the start of a weakening trend in the labor market, it supports our expectation that the Fed will not hike in June.
Not only are private sector jobs consistently growing, but consumers are becoming more confident.
Fed policymakers have signaled that they could raise rates twice this year. The labor force fell for the first time since last September.
Crude oil prices, for instance, hung below $35 a barrel in the first few months of 2016, thanks to fears over slowing Chinese growth, and economic turmoil around the world. The share of Americans participating in the labor force fell to 62.8% in April from 63.0% in March.
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The decline in manufacturing jobs was disappointing given economists have been expecting the sector to be boosted by a weaker Canadian dollar and improving USA economy, said Nick Exarhos, economist at CIBC.
