U.S. employers added more jobs than expected in April, pushing the unemployment rate to a four-year low of 7.5 percent, and hiring was much stronger in the previous two months than the government first estimated, which could help ease concerns of a sharp slowdown in the economy. The Labor Department reported that employers added 165,000 jobs last month. Economists had forecast April job gains of between 145,000 and 160,000. The unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage point from 7.6 percent in March. The department also upwardly revised its estimate of job gains in March and February by a combined 114,000. It now says employers added 332,000 jobs and February and 138,000 in March. The U.S. economy has created an average of 208,000 jobs per month from November through April, above the 138,000 average it added in the previous six months. The unemployment rate has fallen 0.4 percentage point since the beginning of 2012, though it remains high. The Federal Reserve (Fed) has said it plans to keep short-term interest rates near record lows at least until unemployment falls to 6.5 percent. Despite the modestly improving labor market, details of the April report remained consistent with a slowdown in economic activity. Construction employment fell for the first time since May 2012, manufacturing payrolls were flat, and average workweek hours declined from a mine-month high.
