U.S. Adds 115,000 Jobs in April; Unemployment Rate Falls to 8.1%

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced early Friday that non-farm payroll employment increased by 115,000 in April, well below analysts’ expectations.

Despite the tepid gains, the official unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent from 8.2 percent in March. A broader measure of labor underutilization – the U-6 measure, which many consider to be the “real” unemployment rate – was unchanged at 14.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Employment in the healthcare, food and beverage, and manufacturing sectors saw the biggest gains, while the transportation industry was the largest loser. Government employment was essentially flat from March.

BLS did provide some good news in the report. The official employment numbers from February and March were revised upward by a total of 53,000 jobs, bringing February’s net job gain to 259,000 and March’s to 154,000. Still, after a robust job growth trend in the fourth quarter of 2011 to January 2012, the past three months have feature significant declines in job growth rates.