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US Employers Add Solid 223K Jobs; Rate 5.4 pct., 7-Year Low

Published

11 years ago

May 8, 2015

In this April 22, 2015 photo, a sign at a recruiting station for Leslie’s Pool supplies boasts that it is a great place to work during a National Career Fairs job fair, in Chicago. The Labor Department releases employment data for April on Friday, May 8, 2015. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added 223,000 jobs in April, a solid gain that suggests that the economy may be recovering after stumbling at the start of the year.

The job growth helped lower the unemployment rate to 5.4 percent from 5.5 percent in March, the Labor Department said Friday. That is the lowest rate since May 2008, six months into the Great Recession.

The level of hiring signaled that companies were confident enough in their outlook last month to fill positions. The job growth, if sustained, could fuel an economic rebound after a January-March quarter in which the U.S. economy is thought to have shrunk.

“Today’s report argues that the economy is in decent health,” says Scott Clemons, chief investment strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman Private Banking.

U.S. stock prices rose sharply when trading began an hour after the jobs report was released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.

Still, Friday’s figures included signs of concern: A weak March job gain was revised sharply down to just 85,000 from 126,000. In the past three months, employers have added 191,000 positions, a decent gain but well below last year’s average of 260,000.

And the job growth isn’t raising worker pay much. Average hourly wages rose just 3 cents in April to $24.87. Wages have risen 2.2 percent over the past 12 months, roughly the same sluggish pace of the past six years.

Clemons said he was surprised by the meager gain in earnings.

“Everything in this cycle has been slow-motion,” he said, referring to the modest recovery from the 2007-2009 Great Recession. “Maybe wages are another example of that.”

Tara Sinclair, a professor at George Washington University and chief economist at the job listings service Indeed, said: “We’re definitely back to that same discussion we were having before March and earlier this year: Things are looking pretty good and going in the right direction, but where is the wage growth?”

The Federal Reserve has been monitoring the job market for convincing evidence of a healthier economy. The chronically sluggish pay growth and the downward revision to March’s job gain may dissuade the Fed from raising interest rates from record lows anytime soon.

The “Fed could be on hold forever with anemic numbers like these,” said Tom di Galoma, head of fixed income trading for ED&F Man Capital Markets.

Other economists suggested that the Fed isn’t likely to raise its key benchmark rate until late this year or perhaps not until next year.

Some trends that held back growth earlier this year remained evident in Friday’s jobs report. The mining industry, which includes oil and gas, cut 15,000 jobs, its fourth straight loss. Oil drilling has fallen sharply after last year’s plunge in oil prices.

Manufacturers added only 1,000 jobs after a flat reading in March. That’s down from the industry’s average monthly job gain of 18,000 last year. A strengthened dollar, which makes U.S. exports costlier overseas, is slowing factory output.

Construction companies, though, picked up much of the slack by adding 45,000 jobs, the most in 16 months. And he health care industry gained 56,000 jobs.

Such solid figures add to other evidence that the economy may be gradually picking up. Home sales staged a big comeback in March, a sign more Americans are making expensive purchases. People bought existing homes at an annual pace of 5.19 million, the National Association of Realtors said.

Those gains are expected to extend into April based on figures on signed contracts released by the Realtors. That would help spur additional growth in the construction sector as builders seek to meet demand.

Some Americans also appear to be gradually stepping up their spending. Service firms such as restaurants, retailers and banks grew at a faster pace in April than in March, according to a survey by the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers.

___

AP Economics Writers Josh Boak and Paul Wiseman contributed to this report.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

1 week ago

March 2, 2026

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By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

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1 week ago

March 1, 2026

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

2 weeks ago

February 27, 2026

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By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke