While overall expectations for the April payrolls number were generally in line, the “whisper” was for some weakness below the 190K consensus as a result of delayed census hiring (as discussed earlier). However, it was just not meant to be as the US job market juggernaut continues to accelerate, and moments ago the BLS reported that in April the US economy added another 263K, smashing expectations of a 190K print, and well above both the March (189K) and February (56K) prints.
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for February was revised up from +33,000 to +56,000, and the change for March was revised down from +196,000 to +189,000. With these revisions, employment gains in February and March combined were 16,000 more than previously reported. After revisions, job gains have averaged 169,000 per month over the last 3 months.
While overall payrolls were scorching, the goldilocks picture continued, as Average hourly earnings rose “only” 0.2% from the prior month, and 3.2% from a year earlier – once again these figures were below forecasts and the same as March’s readings, however it is worth noting that wages for production and nonsupervisory workers accelerated to a 3.4% gain from 3.3%, signaling gains for lower-paid employees.
While of secondary importance, the jobless rate fell to a new 49-year low of 3.6%, though that was partly due to another drop in the size of the labor force; the household survey showed the employed fell by 103,000, the unemployed fell by 387,000, and the overall labor force shrank by 490K to 162.47 million.
Also of note, and a key point that Trump will be making shortly is that Hispanic unemployment dropped to a record low.
via ZeroHedge News http://bit.ly/2VLFbgw Tyler Durden