April 2022 Job Market Surge: 428,000 New U.S. Jobs Added
In April 2022, the U.S. economy experienced a robust increase with 428,000 new nonfarm jobs, maintaining a steady unemployment rate of 3.6%. Key industries such as leisure, manufacturing, and transportation led the growth, signaling a strong labor market despite expectations for a slowdown ahead.
The U.S. labor market demonstrated impressive strength in April 2022, adding 428,000 new nonfarm jobs while the unemployment rate remained steady at 3.6%. This widespread job growth was driven by significant gains in leisure and hospitality, manufacturing, and transportation and warehousing sectors.
Economists had predicted a job increase between 390,000 and 400,000, with some expecting a slight dip in unemployment to 3.5%. April marked the eleventh consecutive month exceeding 400,000 jobs added, though projections indicate a potential slowdown to around 100,000 monthly jobs in the near future.
Highlights:
- 428,000 new jobs added in April 2022, surpassing estimates by up to 9.7%.
- Unemployment rate steady at 3.6%, matching March levels.
- Average hourly wages increased by 0.3% from March and 5.5% year-over-year.
Unemployment Rate Holds Steady
The unemployment rate remained at 3.6% in April, with 5.9 million unemployed individuals, closely mirroring March figures. Pre-pandemic rates in February 2020 stood at 3.5% unemployment with 5.7 million jobless.
Temporary Layoffs Rise, Permanent Job Losses Stable
Temporary layoffs increased by 8.4% to 853,000, while permanent job losses held steady at 1.4 million. These figures remain elevated compared to pre-pandemic numbers.
Long-Term Unemployment Increases
Those unemployed for 27 weeks or longer rose by 3.9% to 1.483 million, representing 25.2% of total unemployed, exceeding pre-pandemic levels by 362,000.
Labor Force Participation Slightly Declines
The labor force participation rate dipped to 62.2% from 62.4%, with the employment-to-population ratio decreasing marginally to 60.0%, both below pre-pandemic rates.
More Potential Job Seekers
The number of individuals not in the labor force but desiring employment grew by 2.0% to 5.859 million. Discouraged workers increased from 373,000 to 456,000.
Wages Rise, Hours Remain Stable
Average hourly earnings rose modestly to $31.85, a 5.5% increase year-over-year. Average workweek hours stayed consistent at 34.6 across private nonfarm payrolls.
Top Industry Job Gains
Leading sectors adding jobs included leisure and hospitality (+78,000), manufacturing (+55,000), transportation and warehousing (+52,000), professional and business services (+41,000), financial activities (+35,000), healthcare (+34,000), retail (+29,000), wholesale trade (+22,000), and mining (+9,000). Together, these industries accounted for nearly 83% of the total job gains.
Other major industries such as construction, information, other services, and government showed little change during the month.
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