United States
Department
of Labor

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in April (-539,000), and the unemployment rate
rose from 8.5 to 8.9 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported
today. Since the recession began in December 2007, 5.7 million jobs have been lost. In April, job
losses were large and widespread across nearly all major private-sector industries. Overall, private-
sector employment fell by 611,000.

The number of unemployed persons increased by 563,000 to 13.7 million in April, and the unem-
ployment rate rose to 8.9 percent. Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has
risen by 6.0 million, and the unemployment rate has grown by 3.9 percentage points. (See table A-1.)

Unemployment rates rose in April for adult men (9.4 percent) and blacks (15.0 percent). The job-
less rates for adult women (7.1 percent), teenagers (21.5 percent), whites (8.0 percent), and Hispanics
(11.3 percent) were little changed over the month. The unemployment rate for Asians was 6.6 percent in
April, not seasonally adjusted, up from 3.2 percent a year earlier. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

1 Includes other industries, not shown separately.
2 Quarterly averages and the over-the-month change are calculated using unrounded data.
3 Data relate to private production and nonsupervisory workers.

Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs rose by 571,000 in April to 8.8 million. This group has more than doubled in size over the past 12 months. (See table A-8.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 498,000 to
3.7 million over the month and has risen by 2.4 million since the start of the recession in December
2007. (See table A-9.)

The civilian labor force participation rate rose in April to 65.8 percent, and the employment-
population ratio was unchanged at 59.9 percent. The employment-population ratios for adult men and
women showed little or no change over the month. However, since December 2007, the men's ratio was
down by 4.4 percentage points, while the women's ratio was down by 1.3 percentage points. (See
table A-1.)

In April, the number of persons working part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was essentially unchanged at 8.9 million; however, the number of such workers has risen by 3.7 million over the past 12 months. (See table A-5.)

About 2.1 million persons (not seasonally adjusted) were marginally attached to the labor force in
April, 675,000 more than a year earlier. These individuals wanted and were available for work and had
looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they
had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. Among the marginally attached, there
were 740,000 discouraged workers in April, up by 328,000 from a year earlier. Discouraged workers
are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The
other 1.4 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in April had not searched for work in the
4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. (See
table A-13.)

Nonfarm payroll employment fell by 539,000 in April to 132.4 million; private-sector employment declined by 611,000. Since the recession began in December 2007, payroll employment has fallen by 5.7 million. In April, job losses continued in most major private-sector industries. Employment rose in the federal government mainly due to hiring of temporary workers for Census 2010. (See table B-1.)

Employment in manufacturing fell by 149,000 over the month, with widespread job losses among the component industries. Three durable goods industries\u2014transportation equipment (-34,000), fabri- cated metal products (-29,000), and machinery (-22,000)\u2014accounted for more than half of the decline. Since September 2008, manufacturing has lost 1.2 million jobs.

Construction employment declined by 110,000 in April, with losses spread throughout the sector. Over the past 6 months, job losses have averaged 120,000 per month, compared with 46,000 per month from December 2007 through October 2008.