April Jobs Report Shows U.S. Economy Added 211,000 Jobs

Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn

The United States economy added 211,000 jobs in April 2017 while the unemployment rate decreased by 0.1 percentage point to 4.4 percent, according to The Employment Situation report released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The jobs report revealed that the number of unemployed persons in the U.S. decreased to 7.1 million in April 2017. Employment increased in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services health care and social assistance, financial activities, and mining.

• Leisure and hospitality employment added 55,000 jobs in April, with employment in food services and drinking adding 26,000 jobs over the month and 260,000 jobs over the year.
• Professional and business services employment gained 39,000 jobs in April, and has added 612,000 jobs over the past 12 months.
• Health care and social assistance employment increased by 37,000 jobs in April. This is in line with the industry’s average monthly job growth during the first quarter of this year but below the average gain of 32,000 per month in 2016.
• Financial activities employment added 19,000 jobs in April, and has added 173,000 jobs over the year.
• Mining employment in rose by 9,000 jobs in April. Since a recent low in October 2016, mining has added 44,000 jobs, with three-fourths of the gain in support activities for mining.

Employment in other major industries including construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, information, and government, showed little change over the month.

The employment situation for February 2017 was revised from 219,000 to 232,000 jobs added while March 2017 was revised from 98,000 to 79,000 jobs added. With the revisions, employment gains in these two months were 6,000 jobs less than previously reported.

The Employment Situation report is usually released on the first Friday of every month. The Employment Situation for May 2017 is scheduled to be released on June 2, 2017. Until then, the latest report will be available at www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm (PDF).

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