Job Growth Slows in April

Jobs Byte by Heather Boushey

For Immediate Release: May 4, 2007

Contact: Lynn Erskine, 202-293-5380 x115

Wages are growing slower than inflation and weekly nominal earnings fell in April.

The economy added 88,000 new jobs last month and the unemployment rate rose from 4.4 to 4.5 percent. Job growth for the prior two months was revised down by 26,000, putting average job growth over the last three month at just 118,000 jobs per month.

While health care continued to show strong job growth (adding 37,000 jobs), there were job losses in retail (26,000), manufacturing (19,000), and construction (11,000).

The past few months have seen wide oscillation in the reported number of jobs in construction. This sector lost 11,000 jobs in April and 77,000 in February, but gained 34,000 jobs in January and 50,000 in March. The job gains may be due to a warm winter in many parts of the country, but the losses are the effects of falling sales in the housing market. The sharpest declines in construction have been in residential construction and contracting, with heavy and civil engineering being the only sub-sector to see job gains.

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