April 2024 Employment Situation — 2024-05-03

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 175,000 in April, and the unemployment rate changed little at 3.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, in social assistance, and in transportation and warehousing. This news release presents statistics from two monthly surveys. The household survey measures labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic characteristics. The establishment survey measures nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings by industry. For more information about the concepts and statistical methodology used in these two surveys, see the Technical Note. Both the unemployment rate, at 3.9 percent, and the number of unemployed people, at 6.5 million, changed little in April. The unemployment rate has remained in a narrow range of 3.7 percent to 3.9 percent since August 2023. (See table A-1.) Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for adult men (3.6 percent) increased in April. The rate for Blacks (5.6 percent) decreased, offsetting an increase in the prior month.