April jobs report: When will the employment report be released? What is the unemployment rate?
The April Employment Report will be released later this morning. Let’s take a look at what we may see and what it means for the economy.
Every month the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes a report on the United States jobs market to track trends in employment across the country. The employment data for April 2023 will be released today at 8:30 am ET. We’ll have the report’s findings right here as soon as they are released.
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Economic uncertainty clouds markets
After a series of major bank failures, persistent inflation, and record-low unemployment, economic uncertainty is informing business decisions. In March, the US economy added 236,000 jobs, bringing the unemployment rate down to 3.5 percent.
However, while the unemployment rate remains near a historic low, layoffs are up twenty-nine percent compared to this time last year, a sign that demand for labor is falling as interest rates increase. In March, the Fed released a report stating that in order to bring down inflation, “some softening of labor market conditions” will be necessary.
When the central bank announced another rate hike earlier this week, they acknowledged that higher borrowing costs would “likely to weigh on economic activity, hiring, and inflation.” The Fed also said that the “extent,” in terms of the number of workers who could lose their jobs, “remains uncertain.”
Not all in Washington are pleased with the Fed’s actions
Senator Elizabeth Warren has emerged as one of Capitol Hill’s most ardent critics of the Fed’s decision to continue raising rates. On the morning shows this past Sunday, Senator Warren noted that the central bank’s reports from December argue that price stabilization (lowering inflation) requires unemployment to increase by a full percent this year. An increase of this size has been defended by Fed Chair Jerome Powell as necessary. The Masschuessets leader, on the other hand, believes that rate increases disproportionately harm the most economically vulnerable and allow business leaders who created the inflation crisis off the hook for their actions.