Business News

U.S. Unemployment Rate Drops After 233,000 Jobs Were Added In April

The U.S. economy created 223,000 jobs in April, which subsequently lowered the rate of unemployment across the country.

According to CNN Money, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly jobs report on Friday morning.  The report showed a rise in job creation as well as a reduction in the unemployment rate, from 5.5 percent to 5.4 percent last March.

This is the lowest that the unemployment rate has been since May of 2008 and it’s also an improvement over March, when the economy added only 85,000 jobs. However, as Forbes points out, the jobs added in April were still just below the economist consensus, which called for 224,000 new jobs.

The job gains in the professional and business services accounted for 62,000 jobs, 45,000 in heath care, and 45,000 in construction.

One business that didn’t show job gains was mining, as the sector lost 15,000 jobs in April.  According to Forbes, since the start of 2015, the mining sector has lost a total of 49,000 jobs.

One discouraging fact in the April job report came in regard to wages. Despite the growth in jobs, there hasn’t been a corresponding increase in wages as expected by economists.  This has caused some underlying concerns regarding the economy’s true strength.

According to the Examiner, wages rebounded only slightly for April.  Average hourly earnings for all employees rose by 3 cents to $24.87.  Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 2.2 percent.  Average hourly earnings have increased by 2.2 percent.  Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and non-supervisory employees increased by 2 cents to $20.90 in April.

The report also showed that the underemployment rate went down in April to 19.8 percent from 11.8 percent in April 2014 and half a percent lower than where it was at the beginning of 2015, reported Forbes.

According to CNN Money, Wall Street is happy with the report.  After the report’s release, the DOW soared over 250 points (nearly 1.5%) and the yield on 10-year government bonds fell substantially.

In other business news here at Immortal News, economists believe the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in the second half of 2015.

What are your thoughts on unemployment in the United States?

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