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US adds 88,000 jobs in April

The unemployment rate ticked up a notch to 4.5 percent, in line with most analysts’ forecasts, from 4.4 percent a month earlier, the Labour Department said.

The slowdown in nonfarm payroll hiring, seen as one of the best indicators of economic momentum, was worse than expected. Most analysts had expected employers to add 100,000 new positions last month.

Additionally, the job picture for recent months was also downgraded as the government revised lower its estimate for March job growth to show 177,000 new jobs were created instead of 180,000 as initially forecast, and for February to 90,000 from 113,000.

The sharp slowdown in job growth was fairly widespread across the job market, as manufacturing shed 19,000 jobs, and job losses in the retail sector, especially large stores, amounted to 26,000 posts.

The declines were offset by gains in other industries, particularly the service sector which boasted job growth of 24,000 new positions last month.

The report comes amid a weakening of other economic gauges and days before the Federal Reserve meets to review US interest rates.

The central bank has left its base federal funds rate anchored firmly at 5.25 percent since June.

The job report also comes after the government said in late April that growth in the world’s biggest economy slowed dramatically to a 1.3 percent annualized clip during the first quarter.

However, the stock market has been riding a wave of bullish optimism as share gauges have rocketed with the leading Dow Jones Industrial Average setting fresh record highs almost daily in recent weeks.

Friday’s report showed average hourly wages rose 0.2 percent in April to 17.25 dollars, a shade weaker than Wall Street predictions which had called for a gain of 0.3 percent.

Earnings have risen 3.7 percent in the past year.

The average workweek fell slightly to 33.8 hours in April from 33.9 in the prior month.