Robust jobs gain, lower unemployment in April

A burst of hiring provides reassurance for the U.S. economy after a slow start to the year.

A burst of hiring in April provided reassurance for the U.S. economy after a slow start to the year: Job growth returned to a healthy pace. Unemployment hit a decade low. And the number of parttime workers who want full-time jobs reached its lowest point in nine years.

Employers last month added 211,000 jobs, more than double the weak showing in March, the Labor Department said Friday . And the unemployment rate dipped to 4.4 percent from 4.5 percent in March.

Taken as a whole, the April jobs report suggested that American businesses are confident enough in their outlook for customer demand to keep adding jobs briskly despite a slump in the January-March quarter when the economy barely grew.

The jobs report “does increase our confidence that the soft patch in the first quarter is over,” Michael Gapen, an economist at Barclays Capital, said in an email to clients.

The gradual shift in hiring from part-time to fulltime work is an encouraging one. It suggests that many businesses are meeting rising customer demand by expanding some employees’ hours. During much of the economic recovery, the number of parttimers remained unusually high — one reason why steady job growth didn’t produce sharp gains in pay or consumer spending.

So far, the job market under President Donald Trump closely resembles the one Barack Obama presided over. This year, employers have added an average of 185,000 jobs a month, matching last year’s pace.

In his first 3½ months, Trump has sought to put his imprint on the economy. But a deputy White House spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said falsely at a briefing for reporters Friday that job growth in April occurred “especially” in industries where the president has focused: Coal mining, construction and manufacturing. In fact, those three sectors accounted for less than 6 percent of April’s job growth.