US gains fewer jobs in April than expected
‘Disappointment,’ as 266,000 falls short of expected 1 million
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy added just 266,000 jobs in April, a growth well below economists’ estimates, despite falling caseloads and increased vaccine distribution nationwide.
The April unemployment rate was relatively unchanged at 6.1%, although economists caution the number is misleadingly low, given how many people have dropped out of the labor force in the past year.
The news increased political pressure in Washington amid concerns about whether a reported labor shortage in some areas is slowing a recovery.
The White House rejected that notion Friday, saying it will take the economy many months to recover from last year’s trauma.
“We’re still digging out of an economic collapse that cost us 22 million jobs,” President Joe Biden said.
The 266,000 jobs added in April represents a sharp drop-off from the 770,000 added in March.
There are still millions of Americans who have not returned to work since massive layoffs in March and April 2020, and the March jobs report had seemed like a confirmation that the economic recovery that stalled out last year was revving up again.
“Given the robust expectations of over a million jobs gained, it’s hard to label this anything but a disappointment,” said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at the consulting firm RSM.
The pace of the recovery is a subject of intense focus as the country remains more than 8 million jobs in the hole after losing 22.3 million jobs in the first two months of the crisis. At April’s rate of growth, those 8 million jobs won’t be back until the end of 2023.
The increase in April was offset by large declines in temporary help services, and courier and messaging services, and smaller declines in such sectors as manufacturing and retail. Employment in construction was relatively unchanged.
Some businesses have been complaining that they are having a hard time recruiting workers, particularly for low-wage, hourly jobs.
Average hourly wages rose about 21 cents across the country, which the BLS suggested reflected increasing demand for labor.
But Brusuelas said the numbers “… show businesses are responding to demand … outstripping the pace of the economic reopening. It’s hard to reintegrate all the workers back into the labor market at one time.”