Unemployment rate in the US rose 3.9% in April and 175,000 jobs were created

The unemployment rate in the United States rose to 3.9% in April, one tenth more than the previous month, and the economy added 175,000 new jobs, as reported this Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The addition of jobs was below the March figure, when the economy added 315,000 jobs, and is also lower than the calculations of economists, who expected 243,000 new jobs, although they had warned that job creation was going to suffer. in spring.

In the 12 months through April, the United States added a monthly average of 224,000 jobs.

The report indicates that the average compensation of workers rose 0.2% in April compared to March and stood at $34.75 per hour, and has increased 3.9% in one year.

The labor force participation rate in April remained at 62.7%, the BLS said.

In April there was an increase in employment in the health care sectors, with 56,000 new positions; social assistance, with an addition of 31,000 jobs, and transportation and warehouses, which added 22,000 positions.

On Thursday, the BLS reported that the average number of jobless claims in the four weeks ending April 20 was 210,000, continuing a trend that signals a relatively stable economy.

The American president, Joe Biden, assured in a statement that “he inherited an economy on the brink of a precipice” when he arrived at the White House in 2021. “Now we see my plan in action, with more than 15 million jobs created since I took office, with working-age women employed at record rates, wages growing above prices and unemployment below 4% for a record 27 months in a row”.

For his part, former Republican president and presidential candidate Donald Trump referred to these new data before entering his criminal trial in New York and assured that “the numbers are horrible”. “Our economy is very bad and it is beginning to show”he added.

The unemployment data is known two days after the Federal Reserve (Fed) decided, once again, to keep interest rates unchanged, in the range of 5.25% to 5.5%, their highest level since 2001.

The institution that directs monetary policy in the United States justified its decision by the “lack of progress” that there has been in recent months to reduce inflation, whose objective remains at 2%.

The CPI in the United States last March was 3.5%, 3 tenths more than in February, while the average increase in the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index for the third month of the year and the data that the Fed looks at to make its monetary policy decisions, reached 2.7% year-on-year.