The Employment Situation: April 1999 — 1999-05-07

Payroll employment rose in April, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 4.3 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Nonfarm payroll employment grew by 234,000. Job gains occurred throughout the service-producing sector, but losses continued in manufacturing and mining. The number of unemployed persons, 6.0 million, and the unemployment rate, 4.3 percent, were about unchanged in April. The rate has been at or below 4.5 percent since April 1998. Over the month, the unemployment rates for whites and Hispanics increased to 3.8 and 6.9 percent, respectively, at or near where they had been in February. The jobless rates for the other major demographic groups--adult men (3.4 percent), adult women (4.1 percent), teenagers (14.1 percent), and blacks (7.7 percent)--were little changed over the month. Over the year, the unemployment rate for blacks was down 1.3 percentage points, while the rate for whites was little changed.