WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. economy added more jobs than expected in April, official statistics showed on Friday.
The Labor Department said 428,000 non-farm payrolls were created last month, while economists polled by Reuters had expected an average figure of 391,000.
The number of jobs created in March has been revised downwards to 428,000 against 431,000 initially announced.
The unemployment rate, calculated on the basis of a separate survey, stood at 3.6% in April, like the previous month, while the consensus was for a decline to 3.5%.
The Labor Department report shows average hourly wages rose 0.3% last month after rising 0.5% (revised) in March. Over one year, the average salary saw its progression slow down slightly in April, to 5.5% after 5.6% the previous month.
The consensus for the average hourly wage gave an increase of 0.4% over one month and 5.5% over one year.
On the stock market, futures contracts on the main Wall Street indices slightly reduced their decline after the publication of these statistics.
(Report Lucia Mutikani; French version Claude Chendjou, edited by Marc Angrand)
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