“Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 175,000 in April, lower than the average monthly gain of 242,000 over the prior 12 months,” the BLS said in a statement.

“Both the unemployment rate, at 3.9%, and the number of unemployed people, at 6.5 million, changed little in April. The unemployment rate has remained in a narrow range of 3.7% to 3.9% since August 2023.”

The Dow Jones consensus jobs estimate for April was 240,000 while unemployment was expected to be at 3.8%.

Across the workforce joblessness in April was 3.6% for adult men, 3.5% for adult women and 11.7% for teens.

Whites had a 3.5% unemployment rate while 5.6% of Blacks were unemployed. For Hispanics it was 4.8% and for Asians 2.8%.

Health care jobs grew by 56,000 and 31,000 jobs were created in social assistance. Transportation and warehousing added 22,000 jobs and 20,000 retail jobs were created.

Just 9,000 construction jobs were added, down from 40,000 in March. Government jobs increased by 8,000 in April.

Average hourly pay was $34.75.

“Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 3.9%,” the BLS statement said. “In April, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees edged up by 6 cents, or 0.2%, to $29.83.”