April Unemployment Lower Than Prior 2 Months

Non-farm payrolls lost 539,000 jobs in April, reports the Department of Labor today.

The unemployment figures for February and March were revised upward:

• February 681,000 non-farm jobs were eliminated, up from 651,000 originally
• March 699,000 non-farm jobs lost, up from 663,000 originally

Despite a lower loss in April, the overall unemployment rate rose to 8.9 percent from 8.5 percent.

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, 5.7 million jobs have been lost.

Here are some interesting statistics by gender and race:

• Adult men – 9.4 percent are unemployed
• Adult women – 7.1 percent are unemployed
• Blacks – 15 percent unemployed
• Whites – 8 percent unemployed
• Hispanics – 11.3 percent unemployed
• Asians – 6.6 percent unemployed

And 21.5 percent of teenagers are unemployed.

In the private sector, 611,000 jobs were lost in April.

Here are some April job losses by industry:

• Manufacturing 149,000
• Construction 110,000
• Professional and business services (including temp work) 122,000
• Retail trade 47,000
• Transportation and warehousing 38,000

On the bright side, in health care, 17,000 workers were hired. The government hired 66,000 to work on Census 2010.

May 7, 2009