The number of jobs went up by 290,000 last month. But the unemployment rate also rose, according to data released by The Department of Labor this morning. The unemployment rate had been at 9.7% from January through March, but is now at 9.9%:

Here's the latest on marginally attached, and discouraged workers:
About 2.4 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in April, compared with 2.1 million a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. (See table A-16.)
Among the marginally attached, there were 1.2 million discouraged workers in April, up by 457,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.2 million persons marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.
Read the BLS report here.
Posted
05-07-2010 11:36 AM
by
Graham Griffith