Statistics Canada said while 4,400 of those jobs disappeared, that was partially offset by a gain of 1,200 new full-time positions.
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“The good news is that more people were employed, they worked longer hours and got paid more for it”, said Robert Dye, chief economist at Comerica Bank. Encouragingly, long-term unemployment fell by 150,000 workers.
US employers scaled back April hiring amid weaker economic growth, potentially compelling the Federal Reserve push an interest-rate increase beyond next month.
Official data showed 160,000 jobs were created in April, compared with analysts’ expectations for a figure in the 202,000 region. Average hourly earnings climbed 0.3 percent from the prior month after a 0.2 percent advance. There’s one more jobs report before then, which will be watched to see if the April report was a blip or a sign of a shifting trendline. “Growth has never reached three per cent during the Obama Administration – and that’s the worst performance since the Great Depression”, Brady said. Yet the miss was centered in areas such as retailing and construction, where headcounts had surged at the start of the year.
The construction sector grew by just 1,000 last month, a sharp slowdown from 41,000 added in March.
The proportion of adults who either have a job or are looking for one declined in April after four months of increases.
U.S. employers added fewest jobs in 7 months; unemployment rate steady at 5 pct.
Normally a GDP growth rate of 1.9 percent would correlate with the addition of 1.2 million jobs.
The deceleration in job creation last month “is more payback for a very strong first quarter”, said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and the best payrolls forecaster over the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
In April, the labor force participation rate decreased to 62.8 percent, and the employment-population ratio edged down to 59.7 percent.
During April nonfarm payrolls increased 160,000, said the Labor Department on Friday. Assuming it remains stable, around 63%, through the end of 2017, break-even job growth will average 120,000 per month. Average earnings rose 8 cents an hour to $25.53 and are up 2.5 percent over the past year. The unemployment rate in the 19 European nations that share the euro currency is more than twice the USA rate at 10.3 percent. Chief Executive Doug Oberhelman told investors on a call last month. This month’s dip might be mostly driven by retirements, but the apparent pause in the return to the labor force of those who had early dropped out is disappointing.
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Further job losses are likely in mining as the energy sector adjusts to weak profits from a recent prolonged plunge in oil prices. “In April, employment gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, and financial activities, while mining continued to lose jobs”.
