From the BLS:
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 164,000 in April, and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in professional and business services, manufacturing, health care, and mining.
…
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for February was revised down from +326,000 to +324,000, and the change for March was revised up from +103,000 to +135,000. With these revisions, employment gains in February and March combined were 30,000 more than previously reported.
…
In April, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 4 cents to $26.84. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 67 cents, or 2.6 percent.
emphasis added
Click on graph for larger image.
The first graph shows the monthly change in payroll jobs, ex-Census (meaning the impact of the decennial Census temporary hires and layoffs is removed – mostly in 2010 – to show the underlying payroll changes).
Total payrolls increased by 164 thousand in April (private payrolls increased 168 thousand).
Payrolls for February and March were revised up by a combined 30 thousand.
This graph shows the year-over-year change in total non-farm employment since 1968.
In April the year-over-year change was 2.280 million jobs.
The third graph shows the employment population ratio and the participation rate.
The Labor Force Participation Rate was decreased in April to 62.8%. This is the percentage of the working age population in the labor force. A large portion of the recent decline in the participation rate is due to demographics.
The Employment-Population ratio decreased to 60.3% (black line).
I’ll post the 25 to 54 age group employment-population ratio graph later.
The fourth graph shows the unemployment rate.
The unemployment rate declined in April to 3.9%.
This was below the consensus expectations of 190,000 jobs, however the previous two months combined were revised up by 30,000.
I’ll have much more later …