The Employment Situation: April 2007 — 2007-05-04

Nonfarm payroll employment edged up (+88,000) in April, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 4.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Job gains continued in several service-providing industries, including health care and food services, while employment declined in retail trade and manufacturing. The number of unemployed persons (6.8 million) and the unemployment rate (4.5 percent) were essentially unchanged in April. The jobless rate has ranged from 4.4 to 4.6 percent since September 2006. (See table A-1.) Over the month, the jobless rates for the major worker groups--adult men (4.0 percent), adult women (3.8 percent), teenagers (15.3 percent), whites (3.9 percent), blacks (8.2 percent), and Hispanics (5.4 percent)--showed little or no change. The unemployment rate for Asians was 3.3 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-2 and A-3.) In April, total employment and the employment-population ratio fell to 145.8 million and 63.0 percent, respectively.