Employment Numbers Better, Still Not Good Enough

  • Share
  • Read Later

As Adam notes below, some goodish news from the Bureau of Labor Statistics report released this morning:

In April, nonfarm payroll employment rose by 290,000. Sizable employment gains occurred in manufacturing, professional and business services, health care, and in leisure and hospitality. Federal government employment increased due to the hiring of temporary workers for Census 2010. Since December, nonfarm payroll employment has expanded by 573,000, with 483,000 jobs added in the private sector. The vast majority of job growth occurred during the last 2 months.

Manufacturing added 44,000 jobs in April. Since December, factory employment has risen by 101,000. . . .  In April, construction employment edged up (14,000), following an increase of 26,000 in March. Over the month, nonresidential building and heavy construction added 9,000 jobs each. Employment in professional and business services rose by 80,000 in April. Temporary help services continued to add jobs (26,000); employment in this industry has increased by 330,000 since September 2009.

Nonetheless, the unemployment rate rose to 9.9 percent from 9.7 percent as more people reentered the workforce. For some historical perspective, here is the chart Team Obama wants you to be thinking about: