The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its report for April on Friday, and it was bad news for Americans: job growth was far less than had been projected, showing the smallest gain in six months. Additionally, the unemployment rate rose to 3.9% and wage growth slowed.
“The jobless rate tied for the highest level since January 2022. A more encompassing rate that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons also edged up, to 7.4%, its highest level since November 2021,” CNBC noted.
Nonfarm payrolls only rose 175,000 in April; the average monthly gain had been 242,000 over the prior year. Bloomberg Economics’ Anna Wong and Stuart Paul acknowledged the numbers were “weaker than expected.” James Knightley, chief international economist at ING, said this was “the first time we have seen every part of the report come in weaker than expected for a very long time.”
Former President Trump weighed in as the numbers were announced, writing on Truth Social, “HORRIBLE JOB NUMBERS JUST ANNOUNCED. A BIG MISS FROM FAKE ESTIMATES. THEY SHOULD HAVE ASKED ME TO GIVE THE FORECAST. BIDEN IS DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY!!!”
“The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for February was revised down by 34,000, from +270,000 to +236,000, and the change for March was revised up by 12,000, from +303,000 to +315,000. With these revisions, employment in February and March combined is 22,000 lower than previously reported,” BLS reported.
The unemployment rate for adult men increased to 3.6% in April, BLS stated. Construction employment rose only 9,000 in April after increasing 40,000 in March. Construction employment had risen by an average of 22,000 jobs per month over the last year.
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The higher jobless rate feeds into Americans’ continued concern surrounding inflation. A whopping 41% of respondents named inflation as their primary financial concern in Gallup’s annual Economy and Personal Finance poll last month, far ahead of the area of second-most concern, the cost of renting or buying a home, which came in at 14%.