US employers add 263,000 workers as unemployment hits 50-year low
by James Langford
| May 03, 2019 08:35 AM
U.S. payrolls grew by 263,000 in April, driving the unemployment rate to a 50-year low.
Gains included the addition of 12,500 federal government employees, 13,900 new professional and technical positions and 4,000 manufacturing posts, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday. The expansion easily outpaced the average estimate of 181,000 from economists surveyed by FactSet.
Michael Gapen, an economist with British lender Barclays Plc, had predicted gains of 200,000, while Ellen Zentner, an economist with New York-based investment bank Morgan Stanley, had said employers might add as many as 233,000 workers, fueled partly by early hiring for the 2020 census. In April 2009, a year before the last census, federal government payrolls expanded by 125,000, she noted.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/business/us-employers-add-263-000-workers-as-unemployment-hits-50-year-low
