US employment grew at the fastest pace in four years in April as private sector businesses ramped up hiring, showing the labor market recovery picking up steam.
Employers added 290,000 jobs in April, the Labor Department said on Friday, far more than analysts had expected.
The department also revised figures for February and March to show 121,000 more jobs were added than previously thought.
The unemployment rate, however, rose to 9.9 percent as discouraged workers re-entered the labor force to look for work.
"While today's report clearly suggests that we are moving in the right direction, it also shows how much work remains to be done," said Christina Romer, head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
"It will take many months of robust job growth to restore the labor market to genuine health. Further targeted actions to spur private sector job creation are critically needed to ensure a more rapid, widespread recovery," she said in a statement.
Stubbornly high unemployment has been a political sore spot for President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats, even though the job market is showing increased vigor.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected nonfarm payrolls to rise 200,000 last month and the jobless rate to remain unchanged at 9.7 percent.
The median forecast from the 20 most accurate forecasters was for a payrolls increase of 188,000.
"I think we are moving into this very reassuring range of strong employment growth. It is consistent with the way the economy is going," said Kurt Karl, chief U.S. economist at Swiss Re in New York.
U.S. stock index futures held gains after the report, while Treasury debt prices extended losses. The U.S. dollar trimmed losses versus the the euro and rose against the yen.
Private sector employment increased 231,000, also the largest gain since March 2006, after rising 174,000 in March. Private payrolls have now grown for four months. Census hiring contributed 66,000 jobs.
Analysts had expected private employment to rise between 50,000 and 100,000 in April.
Data ranging from manufacturing to consumer spending have pointed to a pick-up in the recovery from the U.S. economy's longest and deepest downturn since the Great Depression.
"The trend is improving," said Zach Pandl, an economist at Nomura Securities International in New York. "The economic recovery is gaining momentum."
But public disenchantment over the economy, especially the labor market, is damaging Obama's popularity. His fellow Democrats face a tough fight in congressional elections in November, with their majority status at stake.
Republicans say Obama's policies—including a record economic stimulus package—have failed to deliver on their promise of reducing the jobless rate, which is expected to still be painfully high when elections rolls around.
About 8.2 million jobs were lost during the recession and economists warn it is likely to take years to regain that lost employment.
U.S. consumers have begun to participate in what has been a manufacturing-led recovery, but job growth is crucial to sustaining that trend.
Last month, manufacturing payrolls increased 44,000 after rising 19,000 in March. Construction employment gained 14,000, rising for a second month and defying expectations of a fall.
Payrolls in the service sector increased 166,000, advancing for a third month. Temporary help hiring increased 26,200, strengthening the jobs recovery theme. Temporary employment is seen as a precursor to full-time jobs.
Government payrolls rose 59,000, adding onto the prior month's 56,000 increase. The average workweek rose to 34.1 hours from 34 hours in March.
20 comments:
i think the democrats r going in the right direction but it will take more time a lot more. The unemployment rate also has a stimulating impact that too with time and increasing job opportunities will time heal.
It seems like the media is trying to make it sound like our economy is getting better by saying that jobs have been added. But they fail to say that the unemployment rate is still climbing. I think Obama is just looking for ways to make the economy look better.
Okay so overall the economy is growing which is a good thing. What people don't realize is the stimulus bill can't just immedietly kick into affect. It will take more time for things to balance out, but at least everything will be somewhat fixed. As the government is creating new jobs for people we need to realize that not everyone can be hired by the government. People should take the initiative to go out a get a job and not just wait to be handed money or help from the government. Overall let's keep it up hopefully in the next year employment percentage will go up.
Well, they can't expect people to get jobs so soon after the recession.
i think that its sad U.S. is one of the best countries in the world and yet we still cant afford for everyone to have a job. Obama needs to change this or get out of the white house.
The economic recovery is gaining momentum.
There are many reasons that the jobless rate increases with the amount of jobs. 1. People are now starting to look for a new job. When you create more jobs, someone who isn't happy with their current job is going to go back to the American way of being picky. 2. The minimum wage increase that the Obama administration has continued to keep as high as it is, is killing the jobs that many small business provide. No matter how jobs you create, if businesses still can't afford to hire people, unemployment continues.
These past few years have been described as the "longest and deepest downturn since the Great Depression." Therefore, the blame shouldn't be put on President Obama for not having yet improved the situation. It is going to take many years to recover from the recession. Obama has helped pave the way for future improvement by creating over 290,000 jobs. The economy is moving in the right direction, but there still remains much work to be done.
The economy is barely on the rise, and it will take many years for the country to come out of recession completely. This year has been a good start for the Obama administration and one can only hope that they will continue to be vigilant about the unemployment crisis.
While the unemployment rate technically rose this month, the actual number of individuals unemployed decreased because of the inherent flaws of the methods behind the unemployment rate. The discouraged workers reentering the work force (those actively seeking jobs in the past four weeks) were previously unemployed regardless of whether they were in fact counted in the official figures. The fact that there has been substantial job growth in the past month is more important than the fact that the unemployment rate has risen.
It's horrible that people can't find jobs, but we can't expect them to suddenly appear. Our economy has suffered a major blow, and it's going to take a while for us to be where we were, if we make it back. It's a difficult position to be in if you need a job, but hopefully our economy will recover soon.
Im not sure that the problem really is the employment, i think the problem lies in the wages. Minimum wage isnt able to keep up with the cost of living these dsys
I hope the economy gets better soon. My dad is having a hard enough time as it is, my mom's best friond lost her job and i dont know how im going to pay for college. And also, the republicans need to get off Obama's back, its not like their boy Bush did such super job himself. His job is hard enough as it is without them praying for him to fail. Newsflash, if he srcews up we all lose.
I don't really understand how jobs could be added but unemployment still rises...it doesn't really make sense...
Well the economy is not going to pick up and stabilize itself if a couple of months, it's going to take a lot more work for the un-employed rate to go down. Yes, we are headed in the right direction, but we are going to have to pick up the extra slack to get our economy to where it used to be.
I'm very pleased that we are creating jobs for those who needed them. However, like the article said, we still have a LONG ways to go. We've made it this far and the only way is up.
This statistic makes it clear that although there are more jobs the american public is too lazy to apply for the jobs
It's kind of weird how that works. More jobs means more people get off their rears and try to get jobs, making themselves count in unemployment. I think we've found ourselves a vicious circle.
It is good that there are more available jobs now. Maybe the U.S economy will recover faster then expected. Hopefully the dollar will increase in value before summer so that people going on vacation will be greatly benefited by it.
As the title conveys, even though so many jobs were added, why the increase? All just because "discouraged" workers decided to move on and return to the job market. This article is not frightening news, especially when so many other positive numbers pertaining to employment increase were given in the same article. I think the future looks a little brighter and I hope that it is enough to say that we are on the up-slope, as history has proven time and time again.
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