US job growth rebounds sharply in April, unemployment rate falls to 4.4%

US job growth rebounded sharply in April and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.4%, near a 10-year low, pointing to a tightening labour market that likely seals the case for an interest rate increase next month despite moderate wage growth.  

Non-farm payrolls surged by 211,000 jobs last month after a paltry gain of 79,000 in March, the Labour Department said on Friday. April`s job growth, which was broad-based, surpassed this year`s monthly average of 185,000.

There were hefty increases in leisure and hospitality, healthcare and social assistance as well as business and professional services payrolls.

The drop of one-tenth of a percentage point in the jobless rate took it to its lowest level since May 2007 and well below the most recent Federal Reserve median forecast for full employment.

A broad measure of unemployment, which includes people who want to work but have given up searching and those working part-time because they cannot find full-time employment, dropped three-tenths of a percentaage point to 8.6%, the lowest level since November 2007.

The employment-to-population ratio rose one-tenth of percentage point to an eight-year high of 60.2%. This measure has risen for four straight months.

The labour force participation rate, or the share of working-age Americans who are employed or at least looking for a job, fell to 62.9% from an 11-month high of 63% in March. It has rebounded from a multi-decade low of 62.4% in September 2015, and economists see limited room for further improvement as the pool of discouraged workers shrinks. 

Construction payrolls rose by 5,000 last month and manufacturing payrolls increased by 6,000. Leisure and hospitality payrolls jumped by 55,000 in April. Professional and business services payrolls rose by 39,000. Healthcare and social assistance employment increased by 36,800.

Retail payrolls gained 6,300 after two straight months of declines. Retailers including J C Penney Co Inc , Macy`s Inc and Abercrombie & Fitch have announced thousands of layoffs as they shift toward online sales and scale back on brick-and-mortar operations.

Government payrolls jumped by 17,000 last month as an increase in hiring by local governments offset a decline in federal government employment.

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