US Continues Adding Jobs, While the Unemployment Rate Rises to 5 Percent

The U.S. gained 215,000 jobs this month, while the unemployment rate rose to five percent, the Labor Department said on April 1.
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US Continues Adding Jobs, While the Unemployment Rate Rises to 5 Percent
A "now hiring" sign is posted in the window of a GAP store in San Francisco, Calif., on Sept. 27, 2012. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
4/1/2016
Updated:
4/12/2016

The U.S. gained 215,000 jobs last month, while the unemployment rate rose to 5 percent, the Labor Department said on April 1.

Most of the added jobs were from construction, and the retail and healthcare industries.

The Labor Department said the unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percent.

“We don’t consider it a significant change,” said Bruce Bergman, an economist for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The increase in unemployment may be good news, since more Americans came off the sidelines to look for jobs, although not all were lucky. That is the fifth time in the past six months that the number of people working or looking for employment has increased, compared to last year when the figure slumped to a four-decade low.

The increase in the work force “has been truly astounding—the strongest in over two decades—suggesting that the job market is finally pulling discouraged workers off the sidelines,” said James Marple, an economist at TD Economics.

(Courtesy: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
(Courtesy: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)