The U.S. economy gained 253,000 jobs in April, and the unemployment rate was down slightly at 3.4%, according to figures released Friday morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This strong jobs report shows there is still room to expand job opportunities for Americans. Wage growth continues at levels that are consistent with low levels of inflation.
In response to the April job numbers, AFL-CIO Chief Economist William Spriggs tweeted:
#JobsReport don't like to see rising mean and median duration in unemployment. The longer it takes to land a job the more workers get discouraged. With the drop in Black men's labor force participation these are causes of concern. @AFLCIO @rolandsmartin
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) May 5, 2023
#JobsReport the Black unemployment rate reached a record low 4.7%, but more importantly, while the Black employment-to-population ration dipped to 60.0, for two months running, it's virtually the same as for whites 60.3%. @kairyssdal as some doubted this equity could happen.
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) May 5, 2023
#JobsReport despite the rebound in net construction employment to another record high, unemployment in construction is still high at 5.0%. Good thing @POTUS has the Infrastructure bill in place--which House Republicans are insisting must be repealed. @AFLCIO
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) May 5, 2023
April's biggest job gains were in professional and business services (+43,000), health care (+40,000), leisure and hospitality (+31,000), social assistance (+25,000), financial activities (+23,000), government (+23,000), and mining (+6,000). Employment was little changed over the month in other major industries, including construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, information, and other services.
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for teenagers (9.2%), Black Americans (4.7%), Hispanics (4.4%), adult men (3.3%), adult women (3.1%), White Americans (3.1%) and Asian Americans (2.8%) showed little or no change in April.
The number of long-term unemployed workers (those jobless for 27 weeks or longer) was little changed in April and accounted for 20.6% of the total people unemployed.