Another Decent Employment Report
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly employment data for April and the results were, for lack of a better word, OK. The net gain of 160,000 jobs was below the consensus estimate of around 200,000 and the prior two months numbers were revised down by a total of 19,000. The good news is that average hourly income increased by 8 cents, continuing an upward trend. All in all, a decent report but one that is hopefully not good enough to convince the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in June, as there is certainly no sign of an overheating economy in these numbers.