The Employment Situation For April, 164,000 Jobs Created, Unemployment Down to 3.9 Percent!

Washington, DC…Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 164,000 in April, and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in professional and business services, manufacturing, healthcare, and mining. Household Survey Data In April, the unemployment rate edged down to 3.9 percent, following 6 months at 4.1 percent. The number of unemployed persons, at 6.3 million, also edged down over the month. (See table A-1.). Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for adult women decreased to 3.5 percent in April. The jobless rates for adult men (3.7 percent), teenagers (12.9 percent), Whites (3.6 percent), Blacks (6.6 percent), Asians (2.8 percent), and Hispanics (4.8 percent) showed little or no change over the month. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

HOUSEHOLD DATA
Table A-1. Employment status of the civilian population by sex and age
[Numbers in thousands]
Employment status, sex, and age Not seasonally adjusted Seasonally adjusted(1)
Apr.
2017
Mar.
2018
Apr.
2018
Apr.
2017
Dec.
2017
Jan.
2018
Feb.
2018
Mar.
2018
Apr.
2018

TOTAL

Civilian noninstitutional population

254,588 257,097 257,272 254,588 256,109 256,780 256,934 257,097 257,272

Civilian labor force

159,817 161,548 161,280 160,181 160,597 161,115 161,921 161,763 161,527

Participation rate

62.8 62.8 62.7 62.9 62.7 62.7 63.0 62.9 62.8

Employed

153,262 154,877 155,348 153,161 154,021 154,430 155,215 155,178 155,181

Employment-population ratio

60.2 60.2 60.4 60.2 60.1 60.1 60.4 60.4 60.3

Unemployed

6,555 6,671 5,932 7,021 6,576 6,684 6,706 6,585 6,346

Unemployment rate

4.1 4.1 3.7 4.4 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.1 3.9

Not in labor force

94,771 95,549 95,992 94,407 95,512 95,665 95,012 95,335 95,745

Persons who currently want a job

5,560 4,793 5,010 5,665 5,308 5,171 5,131 5,096 5,115

Men, 16 years and over

Civilian noninstitutional population

123,032 124,331 124,418 123,032 123,786 124,173 124,250 124,331 124,418

Civilian labor force

84,851 85,924 85,965 85,124 85,354 85,931 86,267 86,169 86,152

Participation rate

69.0 69.1 69.1 69.2 69.0 69.2 69.4 69.3 69.2

Employed

81,341 82,151 82,610 81,406 81,821 82,274 82,685 82,630 82,611

Employment-population ratio

66.1 66.1 66.4 66.2 66.1 66.3 66.5 66.5 66.4

Unemployed

3,509 3,773 3,355 3,718 3,533 3,658 3,582 3,539 3,541

Unemployment rate

4.1 4.4 3.9 4.4 4.1 4.3 4.2 4.1 4.1

Not in labor force

38,181 38,407 38,453 37,907 38,432 38,242 37,983 38,162 38,266

Men, 20 years and over

Civilian noninstitutional population

114,538 115,832 115,921 114,538 115,292 115,669 115,748 115,832 115,921

Civilian labor force

82,019 83,162 83,225 82,054 82,548 82,928 83,309 83,200 83,199

Participation rate

71.6 71.8 71.8 71.6 71.6 71.7 72.0 71.8 71.8

Employed

78,922 79,810 80,242 78,839 79,431 79,705 80,213 80,113 80,111

Employment-population ratio

68.9 68.9 69.2 68.8 68.9 68.9 69.3 69.2 69.1

Unemployed

3,096 3,352 2,983 3,215 3,117 3,223 3,096 3,087 3,088

Unemployment rate

3.8 4.0 3.6 3.9 3.8 3.9 3.7 3.7 3.7

Not in labor force

32,519 32,670 32,697 32,484 32,745 32,741 32,440 32,632 32,723

Women, 16 years and over

Civilian noninstitutional population

131,556 132,766 132,853 131,556 132,323 132,607 132,684 132,766 132,853

Civilian labor force

74,967 75,624 75,314 75,057 75,243 75,183 75,654 75,594 75,375

Participation rate

57.0 57.0 56.7 57.1 56.9 56.7 57.0 56.9 56.7

Employed

71,921 72,726 72,738 71,754 72,200 72,157 72,530 72,548 72,569

Employment-population ratio

54.7 54.8 54.8 54.5 54.6 54.4 54.7 54.6 54.6

Unemployed

3,046 2,898 2,576 3,303 3,043 3,027 3,124 3,046 2,805

Unemployment rate

4.1 3.8 3.4 4.4 4.0 4.0 4.1 4.0 3.7

Not in labor force

56,590 57,142 57,539 56,499 57,080 57,423 57,030 57,172 57,479

Women, 20 years and over

Civilian noninstitutional population

123,296 124,491 124,579 123,296 124,057 124,328 124,407 124,491 124,579

Civilian labor force

72,181 72,780 72,573 72,144 72,293 72,210 72,565 72,610 72,498

Participation rate

58.5 58.5 58.3 58.5 58.3 58.1 58.3 58.3 58.2

Employed

69,474 70,178 70,266 69,218 69,614 69,583 69,828 69,916 69,992

Employment-population ratio

56.3 56.4 56.4 56.1 56.1 56.0 56.1 56.2 56.2

Unemployed

2,707 2,602 2,307 2,927 2,679 2,627 2,737 2,695 2,506

Unemployment rate

3.7 3.6 3.2 4.1 3.7 3.6 3.8 3.7 3.5

Not in labor force

51,116 51,711 52,006 51,152 51,764 52,118 51,842 51,880 52,081

Both sexes, 16 to 19 years

Civilian noninstitutional population

16,754 16,774 16,771 16,754 16,760 16,783 16,778 16,774 16,771

Civilian labor force

5,618 5,606 5,482 5,983 5,757 5,977 6,048 5,952 5,831

Participation rate

33.5 33.4 32.7 35.7 34.4 35.6 36.0 35.5 34.8

Employed

4,866 4,889 4,840 5,104 4,977 5,143 5,174 5,149 5,078

Employment-population ratio

29.0 29.1 28.9 30.5 29.7 30.6 30.8 30.7 30.3

Unemployed

752 717 642 879 780 834 874 803 752

Unemployment rate

13.4 12.8 11.7 14.7 13.6 13.9 14.4 13.5 12.9

Not in labor force

11,136 11,169 11,290 10,771 11,003 10,806 10,731 10,822 10,941

Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary
jobs declined by 188,000 in April to 3.0 million. (See table A-11.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little
changed at 1.3 million in April and accounted for 20.0 percent of the unemployed.
Over the year, the number of long-term unemployed was down by 340,000. (See
table A-12.)

Both the labor force participation rate, at 62.8 percent, and the employment-
population ratio, at 60.3 percent, changed little in April. (See table A-1.)

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred
to as involuntary part-time workers) was essentially unchanged at 5.0 million in
April. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were
working part time because their hours had been reduced or because they were unable
to find full-time jobs. (See table A-8.)

In April, 1.4 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, down
by 172,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These
individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and
had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as
unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the
survey. (See table A-16.)

Among the marginally attached, there were 408,000 discouraged workers in April,
little changed from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.)
Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they
believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.0 million persons
marginally attached to the labor force in April had not searched for work for
reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. (See table A-16.)

Establishment Survey Data

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 164,000 in April, compared with an
average monthly gain of 191,000 over the prior 12 months. In April, job gains
occurred in professional and business services, manufacturing, health care, and
mining. (See table B-1.)

In April, employment in professional and business services increased by 54,000. Over
the past 12 months, the industry has added 518,000 jobs.

Employment in manufacturing increased by 24,000 in April. Most of the gain was in
the durable goods component, with machinery adding 8,000 jobs and employment in
fabricated metal products continuing to trend up (+4,000). Manufacturing employment
has risen by 245,000 over the year, with about three-fourths of the growth in durable
goods industries.

Health care added 24,000 jobs in April and 305,000 jobs over the year. In April,
employment rose in ambulatory health care services (+17,000) and hospitals (+8,000).

In April, employment in mining increased by 8,000, with most of the gain occurring
in support activities for mining (+7,000). Since a recent low in October 2016,
employment in mining has risen by 86,000.

Employment changed little over the month in other major industries, including
construction, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing,
information, financial activities, leisure and hospitality, and government.

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at
34.5 hours in April. In manufacturing, the workweek increased by 0.2 hour to 41.1
hours, while overtime edged up by 0.1 hour to 3.7 hours. The average workweek for
production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by
0.1 hour to 33.8 hours. (See tables B-2 and B-7.)

In April, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls
rose by 4 cents to $26.84. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by
67 cents, or 2.6 percent. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and
nonsupervisory employees increased by 5 cents to $22.51 in April. (See tables B-3
and B-8.)

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for February was revised down from
+326,000 to +324,000, and the change for March was revised up from +103,000 to
+135,000. With these revisions, employment gains in February and March combined were
30,000 more than previously reported. (Monthly revisions result from additional
reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published
estimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors.) After revisions, job
gains have averaged 208,000 over the last 3 months.

_____________
The Employment Situation for May is scheduled to be released on Friday, June 1, 2018,
at 8:30 a.m. (EDT).