April flowers for US economy: 223,000 new jobs
Employers added a better-than-expected 223,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate dipped to its lowest level in almost seven years, the government said Friday.
Coming on the heels of a number of soft economic reports and a very weak March, economists were dialing back expectations for April hiring. Instead, the report from the Labor Department was more in line with 2014 averages and should help to ease fears.
The unemployment rate was unchanged in April, holding at 5.4 percent, the lowest it has been since May 2008. Statisticians revised down an already dismal March number to 85,000 from 126,000.
Healthcare and construction sector hiring was particularly strong in April.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said the April unemployment rate held steady.
Email: khall@mcclatchydc.com; Twitter: @KevinGHall.
APRIL BY THE NUMBERS:
_ Professional and business services, up 62,000.
_ Manufacturing, up 1,000.
_ Retail, up 12,100.
_ Leisure and hospitality up 17,000.
_ Health care, up 45,200.
_ Finance, up 9,000.
_ Construction, up 45,000.
_ Temporary help services, up 16,100.
_ Transportation and warehousing up 15,200.
_ Government, up 10,000.
This story was originally published May 8, 2015 at 9:50 AM with the headline "April flowers for US economy: 223,000 new jobs."