The April Jobs Report

This morning, the government said that the U.S. economy created 428,000 net new jobs last month. That was a little higher than expectations. The unemployment rate stayed at 3.6%. Wages rose by 0.3% and are now up 5.5% over the last 12 months which is below the rate of inflation. There are now 99 million Americans not in the labor force.

An alternative measure of unemployment that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons, sometimes referred to as the “real” unemployment rate, edged higher to 7%. Unemployment for Blacks has showed a steady decline and fell again, to 5.9%, while Hispanic unemployment dropped to 4.1%.

“The job market continues to plow forward, buoyed by strong employer demand. After just over two years of the pandemic, the job market is remaining resilient and on track for a return to pre-pandemic levels this summer,” said Daniel Zhao, senior economist at jobs review site Glassdoor. “However, the job market is showing some signs of cooling as it turns the corner and the recovery enters a new phase.”

The labor force participation rate, a key measure of worker engagement, fell 0.2 percentage points for the month to 62.2%, the first monthly decline since March 2021 as the labor force contracted by 363,000. The level is of particularly importance with a gap of about 5.6 million between job postings and available workers.

The S&P 500 dropped about 2% at today’s open. Today’s low held just above the mid-day low from Monday. That could be a good sign.

Posted by on May 6th, 2022 at 10:24 am


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