The unemployment rate rose to 6.0 percent in April, and payroll employment was little changed (+43,000), the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor has reported. Employment rose in the services industry but fell in construction. Job losses in manufacturing continued to moderate.
Unemployment (Household Survey Data)
In April, the number of unemployed persons rose by 483,000 to 8.6 million, after seasonal adjustment. The unemployment rate increased by 0.3 percentage point to 6.0 percent. Since its recent low of 3.9 percent in October 2000, the jobless rate has increased by 2.1 percentage points, and the number of unemployed persons has risen by 3.1 million.
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The unemployment rate for adult women rose by 0.4 percentage point over the month, and the rate for adult men edged up. Both rates were 5.4 percent in April. The jobless rate for whites increased by 0.3
percentage point to 5.3 percent. The jobless rates of the other major worker groups — teenagers (16.8 percent), blacks (11.2 percent), and Hispanics (7.9 percent) — showed little change in April.
The number of persons unemployed for 27 weeks and over rose by 161,000 in April. This measure has more than doubled since it began trending upward a year and a half ago.
Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)
Over the month, the civilian labor force rose by 565,000 to 142.6 million, after seasonal adjustment. The labor force participation rate also increased over the month to 66.8 percent. With the exception of a few large monthly fluctuations, the participation rate has held close to its current level since last spring. Both the level of employment (134.0 million) and the employment-population ratio (62.8 percent) were little
changed in April.
About 7.3 million persons (not seasonally adjusted) held more than one job in April. These multiple jobholders represented 5.4 percent of the total employed — the same proportion as a year earlier.
For the entire Employment Situation Summary, visit the Department of Labor’s Web site at http://www.bls.gov.
