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A Friday report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) titled “The Employment Situation” showed that the unemployment rate rose slightly in April while hiring fell short of target.
Employers added 175,000 new jobs in April, well below last year's monthly average of 242,000 and analyst expectations of 235,000 jobs.
The unemployment rate rose slightly from 3.8% in March to 3.9% in April.
The sectors with the highest employment gains were health care, where 56,000 new jobs were added in April, social assistance, where there was an increase of 31,000 jobs, and transportation and warehousing, where there was an increase of 22,000 jobs.
Other sectors such as construction and government also added jobs at a lower rate, while electronics and appliance retail saw 3,000 fewer jobs.
Related: CPI report: Inflation rose more than expected in March, driven by housing and energy costs
Bloomberg reports that overall job gains are the lowest the BLS has recorded in six months and that this could be due to slowing growth in the services sector.
However, the BLS report downplayed the changes.
“Both the unemployment rate, at 3.9 percent, and the number of unemployed people, at 6.5 million, were little changed in April,” the BLS report says, emphasizing that the unemployment rate has historically been in the range of 3.7 to 3.9 percent remained for nine months.
Average hourly wages for workers rose seven cents, or 0.2%, to $34.75 an hour in April. At the same time, average weekly working hours fell by 0.1 hours to 34.3 hours.
According to Bloomberg, average hourly wages are growing at their slowest pace since June 2021.
Stock prices jumped on Friday following the report's release, possibly because the report showed continued low unemployment numbers.
“The bottom line is that this report is pretty reassuring,” American economist and Harvard professor Jason Furman said on CNBC's “Squawk Box.”
The BLS will release its next monthly employment report on June 7.
Related: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon Says He's Worried About 'Stagflation' — Here's Why
The Federal Reserve, for its part, may consider cutting interest rates later this year, according to reports.
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