Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press 

under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that 

the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

Statement of 

William W. Beach

Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Friday, May 3, 2019

In April, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 263,000, 

and the unemployment rate declined to 3.6 percent. Over the 

month, notable job gains occurred in professional and business 

services, construction, health care, and social assistance.

The April employment gain compares with an average monthly 

gain of 213,000 over the prior 12 months. (The prior 12-month 

average incorporates revisions for February and March, which 

increased nonfarm payroll employment by 16,000 on net.) 

Employment in professional and business services increased 

by 76,000 in April. Job gains occurred in administrative and 

support services (+53,000) and computer systems design and 

related services (+14,000). Over the past 12 months, 

professional and business services has added 535,000 jobs. 

Construction employment rose by 33,000 in April, with gains

occurring in nonresidential specialty trade contractors 
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(+22,000) and in heavy and civil engineering construction 

(+10,000). Over the past 12 months, construction employment has 

increased by 256,000. 

Employment in health care increased by 27,000 in April and 

404,000 over the past 12 months. In April, job gains occurred in 

ambulatory health care services (+17,000), hospitals (+8,000), 

and community care facilities for the elderly (+7,000). 

Social assistance added 26,000 jobs over the month, with 

all of the gain occurring in individual and family services. 

Over the past 12 months, employment in social assistance has 

increased by 120,000.

 Employment continued to trend up in financial activities in 

April (+12,000). Over the past year, the industry has added 

110,000 jobs. 

 In April, manufacturing employment changed little for the 

third month in a row (+4,000). In the 12 months prior to 

February, manufacturing had added an average of 22,000 jobs per 

month. 

Retail trade employment changed little in April (-12,000). 

General merchandise stores lost 9,000 jobs, while motor vehicle 

and parts dealers added 8,000 jobs. 

Employment in other major industries--including mining,

wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, information, 
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leisure and hospitality, and government--showed little change 

over the month. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls rose by 6 cents in April to $27.77, following a 5-cent 

gain in March. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings 

have risen by 3.2 percent; the over-the-year percent change has 

been 3.0 percent or above for 9 consecutive months. From March 

2018 to March 2019, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban 

Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 1.9 percent (on a seasonally 

adjusted basis). 

Turning to measures from the survey of households, the 

unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 3.6 

percent in April, the lowest rate since December 1969. Over the 

month, the number of unemployed people fell by 387,000 to 5.8 

million. 

Among the unemployed, the number of people searching for 

work for 27 weeks or more was little changed at 1.2 million in 

April. These long-term unemployed accounted for 21.1 percent of 

the unemployed. 

The labor force participation rate decreased by 0.2 

percentage point to 62.8 percent in April but was unchanged from 

a year earlier. The employment-population ratio, at 60.6 

percent, was unchanged over the month. 
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In April, 4.7 million people were working part time for 

economic reasons (also referred to as involuntary part-time 

workers), little changed from the previous month. 

Among those neither working nor looking for work in April, 

1.4 million were considered marginally attached to the labor 

force, little changed from a year earlier. (People who are 

marginally attached to the labor force had not looked for work 

in the 4 weeks prior to the survey but wanted a job, were 

available for work, and had looked for a job within the last 12 

months.) Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally 

attached who believed no jobs were available for them, numbered 

454,000 in April, also little changed from a year earlier. 

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment increased by 263,000 

in April, and the unemployment rate declined to 3.6 percent.