U.S. payrolls surge in April, jobless rate hits 5-1/2 year low

WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added a robust 288,000 jobs in April, the most in two years, the strongest evidence to date that the economy is picking up after a brutal winter slowed growth.

The Labor Department also said Friday that the unemployment rate sank to 6.3 percent, its lowest level since September 2008, from 6.7 percent in March. But the drop occurred because the number of people working or seeking work fell sharply. People aren't counted as unemployed if they're not looking for a job.

Many of those who stopped looking for work last month had been among the long-term unemployed — people out of work for six months or more. The number of long-term unemployed fell 300,000, the sharpest drop in 2½ years, to 3.5 million. Economists said most of them likely gave up looking for work rather than found jobs.

Yet the vigorous job growth in April provided confirmation that the U.S. economy is regaining its health after nearly stalling early this year, when a harsh winter nearly stalled growth. In addition to last month's burst of hiring, employers added more jobs in February and March than previously estimated. The job totals for those two months were revised up by a combined 36,000.

Employers have now added an average of 238,000 jobs the past three months, up from 167,000 in the previous three.

Sal Guatieri, an economist at BMO Capital Markets, said the surge in hiring "signals that American companies are optimistic the economy will snap back smartly after the largely weather-related slump in the first quarter."

Hiring last month was broad-based and included higher-paying jobs: Manufacturing gained 12,000, construction 32,000. Professional and technical services, which include accounting and engineering positions, added 25,100 jobs. The number of government jobs grew 15,000, mostly at the local level.

Lone Wolf wrote:  THEY can always make things look that much better when they simply uote raw figures with no reference points...

COMPARISONS with the past month, 6 months, 12 months, 5 and 10  years, will show which way the economy is actually heading..


AS for the [ever-changing] unemployment figures ~ there are other legitimate reasons apart from simply "not looking for work" that can remove people from that particular f/t unemployment figure, including :
Returning to college or uni' (even if p/t);
Volunteering more than 1 hr a week;
Getting p/t work for more than a few hours a week;
Getting married or moving into a "de facto"/common law union, where the other partner is working full-time;
Heading overseas, even for only a few weeks, can remove people from unemployment stat's for months;
Somebody may be ill or hospitalised for some weeks, but still receiving unemployment benefits (as the medical condition is only temporary or short-term..);
Taking on f/t "carer's" responsibilities;
Taking on some self-employment activity, and then admitting it to that particular welfare agency.
(EVEN though the person may still be looking for permanent full-time work, at the same time they no longer fit the narrow definitions being applied to them..).

"Lies, damned lies - and statistics !"