US unemployment falls to 10-year low in April

However, that helped cause a tumble during March that offset gains that became amplified due to snowstorms across the Northeast and Midwest that left growth in employment during March at approximately 50% of the earlier rates.

The US Department of Labour said that businesses had created 211,000 new jobs which is a surge from the 79,000 new posts in March.

“Today’s employment report should have brushed aside any concerns about the health of the USA labour market that may have come up after the disappointing payroll number last month”, said Harm Bandholz, chief U.S. economist at UniCredit Research, who pushed up his expectations for the next rate rise to June from September. “The fact that we are still quite a way away from [the Fed’s target of] three percent wage growth means that there is no real pressure on the Fed to accelerate the pace of interest rate hikes”, he added.

Leisure and hospitality added 55,000 jobs, with employment in food services continuing to trend up. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 65 cents, or 2.5 percent.

For example, George Washington University economist Tara Sinclair puts it like this: “Two hundred thousand for jobs growth is just such a huge number, you’d think we’d get to a point where employers have to raise wages, and we’re still not seeing it”. Overall veteran unemployment dropped to 3.7 percent, the lowest since last May, after two months of a 3.9 percent unemployment rate.

A consensus of economists had expected the unemployment rate to stay at 6.7 per cent, according to Thomson Reuters.

The labor force participation rate, or the share of working-age Americans who are employed or at least looking for a job, fell to 62.9 percent from an 11-month high of 63 percent in March. Unemployment hit a decade low.

Job gains were seen in mining and manufacturing, relatively small sectors that have been closely watched as a result of the Trump administration’s vows to boost employment in those industries.

AP Economics Writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.

Economists surveyed were expecting job gains of 190,000.

April saw an average hourly earnings increase of $0.07 to a sum of $26.19.

The figures were more evidence of the persistently tight job market and came a day before the department is due to release its monthly employment report.

The Federal Open Market Committee has indicated that it will eventually scale down its investment portfolio by allowing MBS holdings to start rolling off its balance sheets, a move that is expected to push long-term rates higher.