The Employment Situation: April 1996 — 1996-05-03

Unemployment edged down in April, and nonfarm payroll employment was essentially unchanged, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. The nations jobless rate was 5.4 percent in April, 0.2 percentage point lower than in March. The number of payroll jobs remained at 118.0 million in April. Factory employment continued to decline despite the return of auto workers who had been off payrolls in March because of a strike. Total employment, as measured by the household survey, also was about unchanged at 126.1 million. The number of unemployed persons fell by 238,000 to 7.3 million in April, and the unemployment rate edged down from 5.6 to 5.4 percent. The jobless rate has remained in a narrow range between 5.4 and 5.8 percent since October 1994.