May 4, 2018

April 2018 Jobs Report

Unemployment Rate: 3.9 percent

Jobs Created: 164,000

Employment and Unemployment

  1. The Department of Labor reported that the unemployment rate in April fell to 3.9 percent, a level last seen in December 2000. The decrease ends a six-month stretch at 4.1 percent.

  2. For April, the report shows an increase of 164,000 nonfarm jobs. Sectors with job gains include manufacturing (24,000), mining (8,000), and health care (24,000).

  3. The unemployment rate for African-Americans fell to 6.6 percent, the lowest rate on record.

  4. The U.S. has created 799,000 new jobs since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act became law and 3,339,000 new jobs since President Trump was elected in November 2016.

  5. The U-6 rate, which measures both unemployed and underemployed workers, decreased to 7.8 percent. It is 0.8 percent lower than April of last year.

  6. By the U-6 measure, 12.7 million Americans are unemployed. These are people who are unemployed (6.3 million), want work but have not looked for a job recently (1.4 million), or are working part time because they cannot find full-time employment (5.0 million).

  7. The number of long-term unemployed, those unemployed for 27 weeks or more, was 1.3 million, about 29,000 less than in March. They account for 20 percent of the unemployed.

Labor Force Participation

  1. The labor force participation rate is 62.8 percent, nearly the same as in March and below the pre-recession rate of 66 percent.

Wages

  1. In April, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 4 cents to $26.84. It is a 67-cent, or 2.6 percent, gain from a year ago.

Issue Tag: Labor