April's Unemployment Report

Another strong month for job creation has dropped the unemployment rate to its lowest point in almost 50 years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning. April saw a robust 263,000 new hires while the unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent, the lowest it's been since December 1969.

One reason the headline unemployment figure dropped again was because the number of people counted as being in the labor force dropped.  A sharp decline in the labor force of 490,000 in April brought the labor force participation rate down to 62.8 percent.

Professional and business services led job creation for the month with 76,000 new positions. Construction added 33,000, bringing to 256,000 the total new jobs created in the field over the past year. Health care rose by 27,000 in April, while financial positions increased by 12,000.