"We're still very much on the recovery path, but we've got a huge amount of ground to make up in the labor market"
- Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc.
The number of Americans, who have found a job in the private sector in April, tumbled to 115,000 from 154,000 the prior month, said the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday. The jobless rate unexpectedly declined to 8.1 per cent, the lowest level in three years.
"We're still very much on the recovery path, but we've got a huge amount of ground to make up in the labor market," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida.
"We still think the true strength of the labour market lies somewhere in the middle of the strength seen in the first two months of the year and the weakness in the last two months," said Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.
"Over the next couple of months we would expect the monthly gains to settle back into a 150,000 to 200,000 range."
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