Dept of Labor Releases April Employment Situation

Still losing jobs, but not as steep...

Unemployment rates were higher in April than a year earlier in all 372 metropolitan areas. Of the 310 metropolitan areas for which nonfarm payroll employment data were available, 291 areas reported over-the- year declines in employment, while 17 reported increases. Two metropolitan areas had no change.

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: APRIL 2009

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in April (-539,000), and
the unemployment rate rose from 8.5 to 8.9 percent, the Bureau of Labor Sta-
tistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Since the recession
began in December 2007, 5.7 million jobs have been lost. In April, job los-
ses were large and widespread across nearly all major private-sector indus-
tries. Overall, private-sector employment fell by 611,000.

Unemployment (Household Survey Data)

The number of unemployed persons increased by 563,000 to 13.7 million in
April, and the unemployment rate rose to 8.9 percent. Over the past 12 months,
the number of unemployed persons has risen by 6.0 million, and the unemployment
rate has grown by 3.9 percentage points. (See table A-1.)

Unemployment rates rose in April for adult men (9.4 percent) and blacks
(15.0 percent). The jobless rates for adult women (7.1 percent), teenagers
(21.5 percent), whites (8.0 percent), and Hispanics (11.3 percent) were little
changed over the month. The unemployment rate for Asians was 6.6 percent in
April, not seasonally adjusted, up from 3.2 percent a year earlier. (See
tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed
temporary jobs rose by 571,000 in April to 8.8 million. This group has more
than doubled in size over the past 12 months. (See table A-8.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more)
increased by 498,000 to 3.7 million over the month and has risen by 2.4 mil-
lion since the start of the recession in December 2007. (See table A-9.)

Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

The civilian labor force participation rate rose in April to 65.8 percent,
and the employment-population ratio was unchanged at 59.9 percent. The employ-
ment-population ratios for adult men and women showed little or no change over
the month. However, since December 2007, the men's ratio was down by 4.4 per-
centage points, while the women's ratio was down by 1.3 percentage points.
(See table A-1.)

In April, the number of persons working part time for economic reasons
(sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was essentially un-
changed at 8.9 million; however, the number of such workers has risen by 3.7
million over the past 12 months.