The stock market showed again yesterday how non-efficient it can be at times. Several stocks fell to pennies a share for awhile before returning to tens of a dollars a share. While the markets continue to react violently, the economy appears to be gaining more strength.
Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 290,000 in April, the unemployment rate increase to 9.9%, and the labor force increased sharply, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in manufacturing, professional and business services, health care, and leisure and hospitality. Federal government employment also rose, reflecting continued hiring of temporary workers for Census 2010. Since December, nonfarm payroll employment has expanded by 573,000, with 483,000 jobs added in the private sector. The vast majority of job growth occurred during the last 2 months.
Household Survey Data
In April, the number of unemployed persons was 15.3 million, and the unemployment rate edged up to 9.9%. The rate had been 9.7% for the first 3 months of this year.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) continued to trend up over the month, reaching 6.7 million. In April, 45.9% of unemployed persons had been jobless for 27 weeks or more.
In April, the civilian labor force participation rate increased by 0.3 percentage point to 65.2 percent, as the size of the labor force rose by 805,000. Since December, the participation rate has increased by 0.6 percentage point. The employment-population ratio rose to 58.8 percent over the month and has increased by 0.6 percentage point since December.
Manufacturing added 44,000 jobs in April. Since December, factory employment has risen by 101,000. Over the month, gains occurred in several durable goods industries, including fabricated metals (9,000) and machinery (7,000). Employment also grew in nondurable goods manufacturing (14,000).
Related: USA Added 162,000 Jobs in March – Unemployment Rate Reached 10.2% (Oct 2009) – USA Unemployment Rate Rises to 8.1%, Highest Level Since 1983 (March 2009) – Over 500,000 Jobs Disappeared in November, 2008
Mining added 7,000 jobs in April, with most of the increase in support activities for mining. Since last October, mining has added 39,000 jobs.
In April, health care employment grew by 20,000, including a gain of 6,000 in hospitals. Over the past year, health care employment has increased by 244,000.
Federal government employment was up in April, reflecting the hiring of 66,000 temporary workers for the decennial census.
In April, the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased
by 0.1 hour to 34.1 hours. The manufacturing workweek for all employees increased by
0.2 hour for the second straight month to 40.1 hours, and factory overtime was up by
0.1 hour over the month. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 0.1 hour to 33.4 hours in April.
Average hourly earnings of all employees in the private nonfarm sector increased by
1 cent to $22.47 in April. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have in-
creased by 1.6 percent. In April, average hourly earnings of private-sector production
and nonsupervisory employees increased by 5 cents to $18.96.
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for February was revised from -14,000
to +39,000, and the change for March was revised from 162,000 to 230,000.
This is finally some very positive news. The worries over Greece living beyond their means and taking on too much debt is a worry, not really due to Greece but to all the other countries that have been doing the same thing. The biggest fear now seems to be the cost of all the borrowing countries have done over the last few decades having to be paid for at some point. And people seem to be fearing that point may be sooner than they thought 6 months ago.
There is also more fear China may suffer a setback in the next year as a result of an overly heated economy. I think China is wise to restrain growth and speculation. The biggest question is if they have been forceful enough doing so.