The U.S. economy added just 266,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate ticked up to 6.1 percent, the Labor Department said in its monthly labor assessment Friday, smashing expectations.
Thursday’s report from the Labor Department showed that jobless claims fell from 781,000 the week before. It is the first time that weekly applications for jobless aid have fallen below 700,000 since mid-March of last year. Before the pandemic tore through the economy, applications had never topped that level.
The United States added 379,000 jobs in February, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department—far surpassing the 198,000 new jobs economists were expecting—as hiring rebounded in the leisure and hospitality sectors.
