The U.S. economy added 115,000 new jobs in April, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Department of Labor, and the official unemployment rate fell to 8.1%, down from the 8.2% reported in March.
Economists had been forecasting about 160,000 new jobs, so the report raises doubt about the strength of the U.S. economic recovery.
The April data follows a disappointing jobs report in March, when the Department of Labor said 120,000 new jobs were created. While that figure has been revised upward to 154,000 new jobs, forecasters had predicted about 200,000 new jobs in March, following encouraging reports in the previous three months, including a gain of 240,000 new jobs in February.
One of the reasons the unemployment rate dropped is that an estimated 522,000 people dropped out of the workforce in April, as the labor force participation rate dropped to its lowest level in 30 years.
In April, private employers added 130,000 new jobs, while government payrolls decreased by 15,000.
Professional and business services led the way in the private sector, adding 62,000 new jobs. Meanwhile, the nation’s manufacturers added 16,000 jobs.
Hourly wages increased slightly, rising one cent to $23.38.
Also in April, the “U-6” measure of unemployment, which includes part-time workers looking for full-time employment, remained at 14.5%.
The monthly data follows increases in the seasonally adjusted initial weekly unemployment claims, which stood at 365,000 in the week ending April 28. That represented a decrease of 27,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 392,000, but compared unfavorably to weekly initial claims of 351,000 reported earlier in 2012.
According to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the four-week moving average of initial unemployment claims was 383,500 for the week ending April 28, an increase of 750 from the previous week’s revised average of 382,750.
