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The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their “Employment Situation—April 2015” report today, showing that the total number of non-farm payroll employment has increased by 223,000 in April, while the unemployment rate remained unchanged from the previous month at 5.4 percent. The steady rate of 5.4 percent represents 8.5 million unemployed persons. Year-over-year the unemployment rate was down by 0.8 percentage points (or 1.1 million people).
The number of persons unemployed for less than five weeks increased to 2.7 million in April (a 241,000 jump) while the long-term employment figures (those unemployed for 27 weeks or more) saw little change at 2.5 million. The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons remains unchanged month-to-month as 6.6 million but is down by 880,00 year-over-year.
Of those persons the BLS considers “marginally attached” to the workforce there were 756,000 discouraged workers in April. Discouraged workers are those BLS terms “persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.”
While this month’s numbers fell short of what some predications estimated, the construction sector faired well with an additional 45,000 jobs added. This was a positive gain after March saw little change in this segment, which ties in so closely with housing numbers. The April numbers bring the total 12-month growth in construction to 280,000 jobs. The BLS reported that employment gains in construction were split evenly between residential and nonresidential components.
Employment in the financial sector, which includes mortgage professionals, saw average weekly hours of 37.6 percent in April, but little change to overall employment numbers.
MarketWatch reported that stocks “soared” following the announcement of this month’s employment figures, which represents a solid month-to-month trend. According to MarketWatch, all 10 main sectors finished higher on Friday with the S&P 500 (SPX) +1.35 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) +1.49 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite (COMP) +1.17 percent.
