Slighly higher unemployment rate despite more jobs in April
Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The unemployment rate grew 9 percent in April despite the economy adding more jobs than was expected.
The Labor Department said on Friday nonfarm payroll increased 244,000 during the period, boosted by gains in the service, manufacturing and mining industries. In the private sector, 268,000 jobs were added while the federal and state governments lost 24,000 jobs.
There was an increase of 51,000 positions during the month in the professional and businesses services, specifically in technical consulting and coputers systems design.
Jobs related to healthcare rose 37,000, largely due to a 22,000 increase in employment in ambultory healthcare. Hospitals accounted for 10,000 jobs.
In the hospitatility industry, there was continued growth with 46,000 more jobs, mainly from a 30,600 spike in employment in accomodation and food services.
Manufacturing added 29,000 jobs to the economy and mining 11.4 percent.
Despite the gains, the unemployment trate rose to 9 percent in April from 8.8 percent in the previous month.
The number of jobless Americans remained little changed at 13.7 million. Those unemployed for less than five weeks rose by 242,000, but the number of jobless for at least 27 weeks dropped by 283,000 to 5.8 million.
There was virtually the same number of people involutarily working part-time, at 8.6 million.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) used the jobs report to assail the White House for “causing renewed uncertainty for private-sector job creators, crowding out private investment and punishing small businesses and entrepreneurs who are willing to invest.”
“While any improvement is welcome news, job growth in America is still nowhere close to what it should be,” the Republican leader added.
“Over the past month, rather than joining Republicans in focusing on policies that promote long-term economic growth to help balance the federal budget, the Democrats who control Washington have indicated they are planning to increase taxes and allow the government’s spending binge to continue.”
But the White House pointed out that there was an averge of about a quarter of a million private sector jobs created each month for three consecutive months.
“We’re pleased about that. We obviously have a lot more work to do,” presidential spokesman Jay Carney told reporters. “The recession cost the American labor force 8 million jobs and we’re still digging ourselves out of that hole.”
View full post on Labor Stories
