Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) in the US rose only by 266,000 in April, the data published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed on Friday. This reading followed March’s increase of 770,000 (revised from 916,000) and missed the market expectation of 978,000 by a wide margin. Further details of the press release revealed that the Unemployment Rate rose to 6.1%, compared to analysts’ estimate of 5.8%, and the Average Hourly Earnings increased by 0.7% on a monthly basis. The number of unemployed persons stood at 9.8 million, more than in March. The figure for those on temporary layoff also increased since the previous month to 2.1 million. The labor force participation rate remained virtually unchanged, coming in at 61.7%, down by 1.6% year-on-year. Meanwhile, the number of people working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic decreased to 18.3% month-on-month.
More to come…