May 2014 Employment Blog

By Stephen Singer, May 14, 2014

This information is taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Monthly Employment Report. Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 288,000 in April, and the unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point to 6.3 percent. Job gains were widespread, led by employment growth in professional and business services, retail trade, food services and drinking places, and construction.  Incorporating the revisions for February and March, which increased total nonfarm employment by 36,000 on net, monthly job gains have averaged 238,000 over the past 3 months. In the 12 months prior to April, employment growth averaged 190,000 per month.

Employment in professional and business services rose by 75,000 over the month. The industry had added an average of 55,000 jobs per month in the 12 months prior to April. Job growth continued in temporary help services, which was up by 24,000 over the month. Employment increased in management of companies (+12,000) and in computer systems design (+9,000).

Retail trade employment rose by 35,000 in April, with modest gains throughout much of the industry. Employment in retail trade has grown by 327,000 over the past 12 months.  Wholesale trade employment increased by 16,000 in April. Employment continued to expand in food services and drinking places in April (+33,000). The industry has added 337,000 jobs over the year.

Employment in construction rose by 32,000 in April. Construction has added 189,000 jobs over the past year, with almost three-fourths of the gain occurring over the past 6 months. In April, job gains occurred in heavy construction and in residential building.

Health care added 19,000 jobs in April, in line with average job growth over the prior 12 months.

Mining employment rose by 10,000 in April, largely in support activities for mining (+7,000). April’s job growth in mining was much stronger than the average monthly employment change (+3,000) over the prior 12 months.

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls were unchanged at $24.31 in April. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 1.9 percent. From March 2013 to March 2014, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose by 1.5 percent.

In April, the unemployment rate fell from 6.7 percent to 6.3 percent, and the number of  unemployed  persons  at 9.8 million, decreased by 733,000. Both measures had shown little movement over the prior  4 months. Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons declined by 1.2  percentage points and 1.9 million, respectively. Among the major worker groups , unemployment rates declined in April for adult men (5.9 percent), adult women (5.7 percent), teenagers (19.1 percent), whites (5.3 percent), blacks (11.6 percent), and Hispanics (7.3 percent). The jobless rate for Asians was 5.7 percent (not seasonally adjusted), little changed over the year.

The civilian labor force dropped by 806,000 in April, following an increase of 503,000 in March. The labor force participation rate fell by 0.4 percentage point to 62.8 percent in April. The participation rate has shown no clear trend in recent months and currently is the same as it was this past October. The employment-population ratio showed no change over the month (58.9 percent) and has changed little over the year.