The economy added 428,000 new jobs in April, while the unemployment rates remained stable at 3.6 per cent. The unemployment rates of white workers (3.2%), blacks (5.9%), Asians (3.1%), and Hispanics (4.1%) were virtually unchanged from the previous month.
Although labor force participation is slowing, it is still close to pre-pandemic levels
The overall labor force participation rate (LFPR), fell 0.2 percentage points to 62.2 per cent, returning to January 2022 levels. This is the first time since May 20,21 that the LFPR experienced a month-overmonth decrease. The LFPR for prime-age workers (25-54 years old) is still below their 2019 average. However, the LFPR for workers 55-64 years of age is now 0.1 percentage points above their 2019 average.
The LFPR for prime-age men remained flat at 88.7 percent while it fell 0.3 percentage points for prime-age women to 76.2 percent. The LFPRs of prime age women and men are now half a point lower than their pre-pandemic levels.
The LFPR (lower limit for people 55-64) fell 0.2 percentage point, to 71.3%. However, it increased by the same amount in this age group for women, to 59.9 percent. The LFPR of men 55-64 is still below the pre-pandemic level. Women’s LFPR is now 0.2 percentagepoint higher than their Feb 2020 LFPR.
The pandemic has left 586,000 people out of work, including 63,000 men and 165,000 women in prime age. 124,000 parents of children under 18 cited the COVID-19 epidemic as the reason they were out of work. The proportion of parents who cite pandemics as the reason they are out of the labor market is twice that of non-parents.
Wage Growth showing signs of moderation
The pace of inflation has been offset by significant wage growth in the last year. Over the last two year, workers at the bottom end of the wage distribution have seen the most significant growth. If inflation returns to more manageable levels, however, we can expect a slower overall wage growth.
This month, overall wage growth showed signs that it was slowing. The average hourly wages increased by 5.5 percentage year-over-year but rose at an annual rate of 4.4 percent when compared to the previous three months (February-April) and the November-January period.
The slowing rate was even more pronounced for production and nonsupervisory employees in leisure and hospitality, which is a relatively low-paying sector. This group saw an increase of 12.6 percentage in hourly earnings over the previous year, while the annual rate for comparing the past three months to the current was 8.4 per cent.
Voluntary Quits – Unemployment Share
It is often used to measure labor market strength by the percentage of unemployment caused by people who leave their jobs. This indicates that people are confident they will be able to find employment quickly after quitting their job. The decline in voluntary quits may indicate that the labor force is starting to shrink. The current jobless rate is 13.1 per cent. This is just 0.1 percent more than it was in March 2022.
Although these data are not always consistent, they suggest that the tight labor markets may be changing. The slowing growth in wages is another reason why the steady rate of voluntary quits is important. Employers will not be as motivated to raise wages in a weaker labor market to attract workers.
Industry gains
The industry added 2,700 workers between March-April, which continued the growth in childcare workers. However, this is a smaller increase that any other month in 2022. The childcare workforce is still 116,200 less than its pre-pandemic size (February2020). It is important that the childcare workforce continue to grow, given the industry’s importance to women’s labor force participation (which ticked down slightly this month).
78,000 new jobs were added in leisure and hospitality, with 43,800 in food service and drinking places. These two groups saw a smaller month-overmonth growth between April 2022 and March 2022 than between 2002 and 2022. A mere 800,000 jobs are still available in food service and drinking establishments.
This month, the number of jobs in sound recording and motion pictures industries declined by 5,700. It is still up by 82,000 compared to April 2021 but 16400 below its pre-pandemic peak. This industry group is noted for having the largest private sector increase of union membership between 2019-2021. It will be interesting seeing how fluctuations in employment growth affect union density.
Employment uptake among people with disabilities
Despite making progress towards eliminating barriers to employment for people with disability since 1990’s adoption of the Americans with Disabilities Act (the Americans with Disabilities Act), employment levels of people with disabilities remains far below that of their non-disabled colleagues. These strides have been increasing in speed lately. The LFPR remained unchanged as the employment rate for people with disabilities increased by 40,000. This LFPR of 23.1 percent is only slightly higher than the rate for non-disabled people.
The employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) for people with disabilities increased by 0.1 percentage points to 21.2 percent between March and April of 2022. This is the second-highest ever recorded level and represents an increase of 2.8 percentage points year-overyear. It is still less than a third the EPOP for non-disabled people.
The unemployment rate of people with disabilities decreased by 0.5 percentage point to 8.3 per cent in April 2022. The rate is 2.5 times greater than the rate for people without disabilities.
