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America’s job-creation machine kicked into higher gear in April as employers boosted payrolls by the most in two years and the jobless rate plunged to the lowest since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
The 288,000 gain in employment marked the biggest upside surprise since February 2012 and followed a 203,000 increase the prior month, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Unemployment dropped to 6.3 percent, the lowest level since September 2008.
“The economy is gathering momentum after the bad winter,” said Michael Gapen, senior U.S. economist at Barclays Plc in New York, whose firm’s projection of 250,000 was among the closest in the Bloomberg survey. “It’s a very balanced number in the sense that we got it in goods as well as services.”
The report was not without pockets of weakness as wages stagnated and workforce participation matched a 36-year low. Nonetheless, job growth was broad-based and the hiring pace accelerated at factories, builders and service providers after households spent more freely as the first quarter drew to a close, showing the economy is perking up.
Stocks fell, after an earlier rally that sent the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index above its closing record, as concern about escalating tension in Ukraine overshadowed the jobs report. The S&P 500 fell 0.1 percent to 1,881.14 at the close in New York. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.59 percent from 2.61 percent late yesterday.
Read the full story: www.bloomberg.com
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