"The demise of this recovery is grossly exaggerated"
- Eric Green, global head of research at TD Securities Inc.
Job creation accelerated further in April, while the jobless rate dropped to the four-year low, quelling worries of a spring slowdown. On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said that the U.S. economy adding 165,000 new positions, following a revised 138,000 increase in March, outpacing expectations of a 146,000 gain. At the same time, the overall unemployment rate edged lower to 7.5% in April, partly due to the jobs gains and to labour-force participation rate, which still remains at a 35-year low. The report also showed, that jobs were mostly concentrated in the professional and business services sectors, with 73,000, while bars and restaurants, added 38,000 new working places.
"The demise of this recovery is grossly exaggerated," said Eric Green, global head of research at TD Securities Inc. in New York, who forecast a 162,000 gain in payrolls. "We're still in a soft patch, but the job market is not falling apart. The U.S. labour market is in much better shape than most people feared."
"Overall, a strong set of numbers which will reassure markets that the U.S. economy is not as weak as it may have seemed given some of the earlier data," said Andrew Grantham, an economist at CIBC World Markets in Toronto.
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