Chart 1

Nonfarm employment rose by 88,000 jobs in the month of April.  The unemployment rate remained relatively steady, rising slightly to an estimated 4.5 percent.  Chart 1 shows the national unemployment rate for the last 13-month period.

• Average hourly earnings for all private sector workers were up by 3.8 percent in the last twelve-month period.  This slight decrease from last month (4.0 percent) still manages to surpass the estimated rate of inflation, which rose to 2.8 percent in April from 2.4 percent in March for all urban consumers in the most recent twelve-month period for which data is available. 
• Manufacturing employment dropped significantly, losing an estimated 151,000 jobs in the year, following an annual decline of 117,000 jobs in March (in revised data). The estimated level of manufacturing employment continues to decline, mirroring numbers not seen since 1950. 

For detailed charts on the U.S. economy’s job and wage performance over the past year click here .

The Industry Picture

The industry-by-industry snapshot of employment remains generally positive.  Manufacturing lost jobs in the month, and natural resources & mining and leisure & hospitality showed the strongest level of job growth in these select industries.

Chart 2 shows the percentage by which the total number of jobs (seasonally adjusted) in each major industry changed between April 2006 and April 2007. Overall, the economy added 1.88 million jobs to nonfarm payrolls in the last year—a growth of 1.4 percent. Among the sectors shown in Chart 2, natural resources & mining (5.8 percent) and leisure & hospitality (3.2 percent) showed the greatest percentage of job growth.  The following four sectors showed the largest actual job growth among the sectors shown in Chart 2: Trade, transportation & utilities (26,420 jobs), government (22,219 jobs), education & health services (18,240 jobs), and professional & business services (17,870 jobs)

Chart 2

Chart 3

Chart 3 shows the annual rate at which seasonally adjusted average hourly wages in each major industry changed between April 2006 and April 2007 (without taking inflation into account). With inflation increasing to 2.8 percent, wages in two sectors shown in Chart 3 failed to outpace inflation: trade, transportation & utilities (2.3 percent); other services (2.9 percent) and manufacturing (2.7 percent). The two sectors showing the strongest wage growth were natural resources & mining (6.2 percent) and leisure & hospitality (6.2 percent).

Manufacturing Update Our monthly Economic Update now features a more in-depth jobs analysis for the manufacturing sector. In addition to the analysis of the manufacturing sector, we also review employment trends for selected high-wage manufacturing industries.  Readers will be able to track on a monthly basis what is happening to the good jobs in this vital sector of the economy – a sector that is critical to unions, employers, and communities.  For a more detailed analysis, click here.

Shea Shackelford and Howard Wial prepared this summary for the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute.