The U.S. labor market charged ahead in April, according to Yahoo News.
The economy added 263,000 non-farm payrolls for the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. This topped expectations for 190,000 new positions, according to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg. March’s payroll additions were downwardly revised to 189,000, from 196,000 previously.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.6% for the month, the lowest level since December 1969. Consensus economists had anticipated that unemployment would hold at March’s 3.8% rate.
Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate fell slightly from March to 62.8%, but was unchanged from the year prior. The broad U-6 gauge of unemployment – which captures the underemployed as well as those who have ceased looking for jobs and – held at 7.3%, the same level seen in both February and March.