The U.S. unemployment rate edged down to 8.1 percent in April, despite that the economy sluggishly added fewer jobs than economists had expected.
Economists had expected at least 165,000 nonfarm jobs in April according to USAToday, but the economy gained only 115,000 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The private sector gained 130,000 nonfarm jobs, but continuing government layoffs dropped the net gain to 115,000.
That followed a gain of 154,000 jobs in March and gains averaging 252,000 per month from December through February, after upward revisions by the BLS. The private sector has now gained nonfarm jobs for 26 consecutive months with total nonfarm employment showing net job gains in each of the last 19 of those months.
The most notable April net job gains were in the professional and business services industry at 62,000, with temporary help services adding 21,000 of those. The industry has netted 1.5 million jobs since a low point in September 2009.
Next in line was the retail trade industry by netting 29,000 jobs, with general merchandise stores accounting for the most at 21,000.
Health care netted 19,000 jobs in April. Much of the industry’s continued job growth over the past few years, even throughout the Great Recession, is attributable to the increasing medical demands of aging baby boomers and the obesity epidemic, and to provisions in President Obama’s Affordable Care Act as well.
Manufacturing, an industry that economists consider to be a gauge of labor market health, added 16,000 jobs in April. Fabricated metal products and machinery manufacturing added the most of those jobs, at 6,000 and 5,000 respectively.
Transportation and warehousing lost a whopping 17,000 jobs, with transit and ground passenger transportation losing the most at 11,000. Construction lost 2,000 jobs, with nonresidential specialty trade contractors losing 8,400 offset by residential specialty trade contractors gaining 6,300.
Among the major work groups tracked by the BLS, teenagers again suffered the highest unemployment rate (24.9 percent) followed by blacks (13.0), Hispanics (10.3), adult men (7.5), adult women (7.4), whites (7.4) and Asians (5.2, not seasonally adjusted). Workers who have four-year college degrees or higher suffered a 4.0 percent unemployment rate in April, while those without a high school diploma suffered the most at a 12.5 percent rate.
|
April’s unemployment rate of 8.1 percent was the lowest since 7.8 in January 2009, when President Obama took office. The unemployment rate has been slowly but steadily declining since it was 9.1 percent for three months straight in June through August 2011. The BLS counted 12.5 million workers as unemployed in April, down from 12.7.
The unemployment rate does not include workers who are involuntarily working only part time and with fewer benefits, if any, such as no health insurance, because they can’t find full-time jobs or employers cut their work hours.
The number of involuntarily part-timers was 7.9 million in April, up from 7.7 in March. The average workweek for both part-timers and full-timers was unchanged at 34.5 hours. Average hourly earnings increased one cent to $23.38.
The unemployment rate also does not include “marginally-attached” unemployed workers. The BLS does not count them in the official rate because they stopped looking for work in the four weeks preceding the count, for reasons such as school attendance, family matters or their collective perception that there are no jobs.
The number of marginally-attached unemployed workers in April was 2.4 million, the same as in March (when rounded). Among the marginally-attached, 968,000 million were so-called “discouraged workers” because they gave up looking for work due to their shared perception that there are no jobs, at least not for them. The number of discouraged workers was up by 103,000 from March.
The number of long-term unemployed workers, those who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer, dropped from 5.3 to 5.1 million in April and accounted for 41.3 percent of all unemployed workers. Standard state unemployment benefits last only up to 26 weeks without extensions.
President Obama recently signed a law that stretches out eligibility for unemployment benefit extensions through 2012. The law also extends the 2011 payroll tax cut through 2012.
If you are a recent victim of job loss or a reduction in work hours resulting from the high unemployment rate, then you might be eligible to collect full or partial unemployment benefits from the state unemployment office. You might also be eligible to continue your employer-provided group health insurance coverage through COBRA. To look for a new job, start at the Job Search page.
For more details about the April 2012 unemployment rate and related matters, see the “Employment Situation Summary” by the BLS. The BLS plans to report the May 2012 unemployment rate on June 1. To receive notification like this automatically, subscribe to Employee Rights Blog for free.
- - -
Certain figures in this unemployment rate report were rounded and/or seasonally adjusted by the BLS, and are subject to revision by same (based on additional data that was not initially available). The unemployment rate chart pictured above was provided by the BLS.
