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U.S. jobless rate falls to 5.5-year low in April

02 May 2014 20:24 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The U.S. job market staged a sharp rebound in April, with the unemployment rate falling to a near pre-crisis level, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

According to a Labor Department report Friday, unemployment slipped by 0.4 percentage point to 6.3 percent, the lowest in five and a half years. Nonfarm payroll employment increased 288,000 in April, the highest in more than two years.

"Job gains were widespread, led by employment growth in professional and business services, retail trade, food services, drinking places and construction," the department said in a statement.

The number of newly added jobs in February and March were also revised upward to 425,000.

The significant drop in the jobless rate was partly due to fewer people working or seeking a job. The labor participation rate, or the ratio between the employed and unemployed but seeking jobs and the entire population, decreased 0.4 percentage points to 62.8 percent in April, the lowest level since last December.

The civilian labor force, or the number of employed and unemployed but seeking jobs, dropped by 806,000 in April, following a gain in March. The Labor Department said the decline was due mostly to fewer people entering the labor force than unusual.

The number of long-term unemployed, or those jobless for 27 weeks or more, declined by 287,000 in April to 3.5 million, accounting for 35.3 percent of the total unemployed.

Average hourly earnings were unchanged at 24.31 U.S. dollars.

Meanwhile, the U.S. economy grew by a scant 0.1 percent in the first quarter, as severe weather held back consumption and construction.

However, data on personal expenditure, manufacturing activities and inventory building have seen a hefty rebound since March, reinforcing the view that the U.S. economy has emerged from its winter of bad weather.

The Federal Reserve has decided to keep reducing the money it is pumping into the recovery by trimming the monthly bond purchase by 10 billion U.S. dollars from May.