Newsroom

May 02, 2014

Unemployment down in April

May 5, 2014 – The unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent in April – down from 6.7 percent in March – and 288,000 jobs were created, according to a NAFCU Macro Data Flash.

NAFCU Research Assistant Doug Christman analyzed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and found that 806,000 people left the labor force, contributing to the drop in unemployment.

"The labor force participation rate decreased to 62.8 percent," Christman wrote. "The business services and the education and health services sectors grew the most, while the information sector lost about 3,000 jobs. The Federal Reserve will continue to watch the employment situation as they assess how much to taper their asset purchase program throughout the year."

Non-farm payrolls went up by 288,000 in April, and March's and February's numbers were revised upward to 203,000 and 222,000 respectively.

Private-sector payroll employment increased by 273,000 jobs in April. The business services and education and health services sectors saw the largest increases (at 75,000 and 40,000 jobs respectively), while the information sector was the only private sector to lose jobs with a decrease of 3,000. Local government and state government jobs went up by 17,000 and 1,000 jobs respectively, while the federal government lost 3,000 jobs.