US employment continued to rise at a solid pace in April, while wage growth moderated, although a surprise drop in the participation rate suggests that the labor market will remain extremely tight.
(Also read: Big resignation: workers who regret leaving their jobs)
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 428,000 in Aprilmatching the previous month’s figure, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department. The unemployment rate remained at 3.6%while the size of the labor force decreased.
Increase in wages
Average hourly earnings increased from the previous month. The median of the estimates of economists surveyed by Bloomberg was a 380,000 increase in payroll and a drop to 3.5% in the unemployment rate.
The solid advance in payrolls suggests that labor demand remains strong. Job offers and layoffs have reached record highs againwhile businesses are struggling to hire enough workers to keep pace with robust consumer demand.
High competition for workers has caused wages to rise at a rapid pace in recent months, but even so, many workers have not seen their income grow at the same rate as inflation.
Friday’s report suggests the pace of those increases may be starting to moderate. Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% from March, below economists’ estimates after an upward revision from the previous month. On a year-over-year basis, revenue grew 5.5%.
The labor participation rate -the proportion of the working-age population that is working or looking for work- fell to 62.2%, the lowest in the last three monthsand the rate for workers between the ages of 25 and 54 fell.
This complicates the Federal Reserve’s job of trying to match labor demand with supply.
BLOOMBERG
More US news
#created #jobs #April #share #fell