Us Unemployment Rate Increases Again

[pl1]

Probably missed in all the melee today (from CNBC)

U.S. nonfarm payrolls grew at the fastest pace in four years in April as private sector employers ramped up hiring, raising the strong possibility that the labor market recovery may be picking up steam.

Employers added 290,000 jobs in April, the Labor Department said on Friday. It revised figures for February and March to show 121,000 more jobs were added than previously thought. The unemployment rate, however, rose to 9.9 percent as the size of the labor force increased.

Payrolls have now risen for four straight months.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected nonfarm payrolls to rise 200,000 last month and the jobless rate to remain unchanged at 9.7 percent. The median forecast from the 20 most accurate forecasters was for a payrolls increase of 188,000.

Private sector employment increased 231,000, also the largest gain since March 2006, after rising 174,000 in March.

Private payrolls have now grown for four months. Census hiring contributed 66,000 jobs.

Stubbornly high unemployment has been a political sore spot for President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats, even though the job market appears to be slowly on the mend.

[Gone baby gone]

Nearly at the magic 10% unemployed mark.

And that's using their dodgy massaged stats! The true rate is probably now knocking on the door of 20%.