+DJ US April Nonfarm Payrolls +288K; Consensus +150K
05/07/2004
Dow Jones News Services
(Copyright © 2004 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
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05-07-04 0829ET
*DJ US April Unemployment Rate 5.6%; Consensus 5.7%
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05-07-04 0829ET
*DJ US April Average Hourly Earnings Up $0.05 To $15.59
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05-07-04 0829ET
*DJ US Manufacturing Payrolls +21K; Svc-Producing +246K
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05-07-04 0829ET
*DJ US April Overall Workweek Unchanged At 33.7 Hours
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05-07-04 0829ET
*DJ US March Payrolls Revised To +337K From +308K
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05-07-04 0829ET
*DJ US March Unemployment Rate Unrevised At 5.7%
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05-07-04 0829ET
=DJ DATA SNAP: US Jobs Growth "Widespread" 2nd Month In A Row
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April Employment Report !Surprise: Yes !
April March !Trend: Strong !
Payrolls +288K +337K r!Recovery !
Unemployment Rate 5.6% 5.7% !Consensus: !
Hourly Earnings $15.59 $15.54 !Payrolls +150K!
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By Joseph Rebello and Phil McCarty
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--U.S. employers hired workers at a rapid pace for a second month in a row, helping to lower the unemployment rate and validating Wall Street's judgment that the "jobless recovery" has finally bloomed into a real recovery.
Non-farm business payrolls grew by a net 288,000 in April, raising the total to 1.1 million over the last eight months, the Labor Department said Friday. The department also reported 66,000 more jobs were created during March and February than initially estimated. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, dropped a tenth of a percentage point to 5.6% in April.
The report surprised Wall Street, which had expected an expansion of just 150,000 jobs and a stagnant unemployment rate, according to the average forecast of economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires and CNBC.
Many economists now expect the economy to generate about 200,000 jobs a month for the remainder of the year - an expectation that, if realized, would go a long way toward fulfilling the White House's much-derided prediction of a 2.6 million increase in jobs this year.
The persistent scarcity of jobs since the recession officially ended in November 2001 had been a key source of worry for U.S. economic policymakers, who fretted it could derail economic growth by frightening consumers into curbing expenditures. It also become a liability for President George W. Bush in his reelection campaign - Democratic leaders regularly noted that Bush is the first president since Herbert Hoover to have presided over a net loss of jobs.
During the first two-and-a-half years of Bush's term, the economy shed 2.7 million jobs. Since the summer of 2003, when the country began to see sizzling economic growth, about 40% of those losses have been reversed.
Over the last month, moreover, virtually all labor-market indicators have suggested the job-market recovery has taken root. Last week, for example, the number of workers filing first-time applications for unemployment benefits dropped to 315,000 - the lowest level since the week before the 2000 presidential election.
Federal Reserve policymakers, however, have remained cautious about the outlook, saying only that hiring "appears" to have improved. They opted this week to hold the key federal funds rate at a 46-year low of 1% and said that when they do begin raising the rate, the increases will be "measured." Most economists nevertheless expect the central bank to start raising the rate in August, a view that was bolstered by the April employment report.
"With the labor market still in a relatively early stage of its cyclical recovery, an unusually high rate of job creation may be required for some time to bring the labor market back into balance," Fed Governor Ben S. Bernanke said in a speech two weeks ago. That rate, he said, may need to rise as high as 330,000 non-farm jobs a month. In the first four months of the year, the average was 217,000.
The Labor Department said job growth in April was "widespread for the second consecutive month." The service-producing industry added 246,000 jobs, down slightly from an expansion of 255,000 in March. The professional and business-services industry - which includes temporary help - added 123,000 jobs. Of those, 35,000 jobs were temporary, the government said. Temporary-help jobs have grown by 261,000 over the last year. The manufacturing industry added 21,000 jobs, marking the biggest increase in nearly four years. The construction industry added 18,000 jobs, down from 65,000 in March. The leisure and hospitality industry added 36,000, up slightly from March. Government jobs increased by 8,000, less than a third of the increase recorded in March.
The jobs growth coincided with a small increase in average hourly earnings, which rose five cents - or 0.3% - to $15.59 in March. The average work week held steady at 33 hours and 42 minutes.
-By Joseph Rebello and Phil McCarty; 202-862-9279; joseph.rebello@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-07-04 0830ET |
