South By North Strategies, Ltd.

The national employment report for April points to an improving labor market. Last month, employers added 290,000 more payroll jobs than they eliminated with gains occurring across a broad range of industries. Stabilizing conditions also drew many jobless individuals back into the labor force in attempts to find work.

In April, the nation’s employers added 290,000 more payroll positions than they eliminated. Gains occurred in both the public (+59,000) and private sectors (+231,000), as well as in most major industry groups. The largest gains occurred in professional and business services (+80,000), government (+59,000), leisure and hospitality services (+45,000), and manufacturing (+44,000). Losses occurred in the trade/transportation/utilities (-3,000) and information (-3,000) sectors.

The job growth experienced in April encouraged individuals who had stopped looking for work to resume their searches, a development that pushed up the unemployment rate. In April, 15.3 million Americans – 9.9 percent of the labor force –  were jobless and actively seeking work. Proportionally more adult male workers were unemployed than female ones (10.1 percent vs. 8.2 percent). Similarly, unemployment rates were higher among Black (16.5 percent) and Hispanic workers (12.5 percent) than among White ones (9.0 percent). The unemployment rate among teenagers was 25.4 percent.Furthermore, newly available data show that 9.1 percent of all veterans were unemployed in April; the rate among veterans who had served since September 2001 was 13.1 percent.

Click here for South by North Strategies’ full analysis of the employment report.