U.S. gains 288,000 jobs in April
The U.S economy heated up faster than the weather last month as the government reported gains of 288,000 jobs in April — the highest level since January 2012 — after averaging 190,000 per month for the past year.
At the same time, the national unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percent to 6.3 percent last month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced Friday. That pushed the widely watched measure of the health of the job market to its lowest level in more than five years.
Employment gains were widespread, led by growth in professional services (75,000), retail (35,000), food services and drinking places (33,000), and construction (32,000), according to the BLS. Health care employment increased by 19,000 jobs, which is in line with the 12-month average gain of 17,000 per month.
Although not counted among the 9.8 million unemployed Americans, an additional 2.2 million people were among those “marginally attached to the workforce,” according to the BLS as they did not have jobs, but also had not searched for one during the four weeks prior to the survey.
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