US Unemployment Falls to Lowest Level Since May 2008
The overall transportation and warehousing sector, which includes trucking, gained 15,200 jobs in April.
The 223,000 net increase in overall employment followed an 85,000 gain in March that was the smallest since June 2012.
“The pace of employment is quite encouraging,” said Gregory Daco, head of U.S. macroeconomics at Oxford Economics USA Inc. “Wage growth is accelerating, but it’s quite gradual, more gradual than we would expect in a market where the unemployment rate is 5.4%.”
Wage growth remains limited, with average hourly earnings rising 0.1 % in April after a revised 0.2 % gain that was weaker than initially reported. Compared with a year earlier, hourly pay was up 2.2 % last month.
The slowdown in employment tied to cheaper oil prices persisted in April, the Labor Department’s report showed. The mining industry, which includes oil extraction and services, lost 15,000 jobs, the most since May 2009.
