Happy Friday! It's Kristin with your daily morning digest.
The labor market has been tight, but that didn't stop U.S. employers from adding 428,000 jobs in April, according to the latest report from the Labor Department. Economists had projected hiring to slow, but this morning's report showed job gains in April kept pace with those in March. The unemployment rate also remained 3.6%, unchanged from March. The job growth was widespread across industries, led by the leisure and hospitality sector, followed by manufacturing, and transportation and warehousing.
And though employment remains 1.2 million jobs, or 0.8%, short of pre-pandemic levels back in February 2020, the nearly 6 million unemployed people in the U.S. could have more choices of jobs this year, as the number of job openings sits at a record 11.5 million.
Employers looking to hire more workers have increased hourly pay, which rose by an average of 10 cents per hour last month, jumping 5.5% since last year. But for many workers, wages haven't kept pace with inflation, which has surged 8.5% over the past year.
Stocks are falling today after a broad sell-off in the markets yesterday. Wednesday's "relief rally"—which came on the heels of the Federal Reserve's announcement about taking more aggressive rate hikes off the table—was short lived, as tech stocks got slammed Thursday in a market sell-off. The tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped nearly 5%, while the S&P 500 lost 3.6% and the Dow fell 3.1%. The market volatility also impacted the cryptocurrency market, as the price of Bitcoin dropped below $36,000 this morning, the lowest it's been since January.
- Kristin
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