Hiring slows drastically in April

Hiring for April fell well below the expectations of economists with just 266,000 jobs added to the economy last month.

Unemployment ticked up to 6.1% from 6% a month ago, according to the latest Employment Situation Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists had forecasted as many as 1 million hires in April. 

The Bureau also revised its March jobs data, lowering hiring by 146,000 to 770,000 new jobs compared to the previously reported 916,000 additions.

Retail trade employment in April fell by 15,000 following a gain of 33,000 in the prior month.

Employment in construction for April changed little compared to March. Construction industry employment is up by 917,000 over the year but remains 196,000 below its February 2020 level. The construction unemployment rate fell from 8.6% in March to 7.7% in April.

"Job gains continued, albeit a bit lightly, in the latest month," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors. "The 266,000 additions in April bring us to 1.8 million net new jobs in 2021."

Yun points out that 20 million jobs were lost in April of last year during the total pandemic lockdown and the job gains from re-opening the economy last year and this year so far still imply that 8 million more jobs are needed to get the economy back to the pre-pandemic levels.

In the months ahead, Yun says construction needs to increase its hiring efforts.

"The housing market is hot but could come to a halt if home prices continue to rise strongly and hurt affordability for first-time buyers," he said. "That is why it is critical for homebuilding to further ramp up. Let’s ensure that workers are not hindered from getting work at lumber mills and at construction sites.”  

Manufacturing employment dropped by 18,000, following gains of 54,000 and 35,000 in the previous two months. 

Transportation and warehousing employment in couriers and messengers fell by 77,000 in April but is up by 126,000 since February 2020. Air transportation added 7,000 jobs over the month.

Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 21 cents to $30.17 in April, following a decline of 4 cents in the prior month.

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 0.1-hour to 35.0 hours in April.

The full Employment Situation Report for April 2021 is available here.