The U.S. economy created a modest 115,000 jobs in April, the Labor Department reported on May 4.
Manufacturing accounted for 16,000 of these jobs.
"No one should be happy with this jobs report," said Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. "It's always good news when manufacturing is in positive territory, but the 16,000 factory jobs added in April is well below the trend of the past two years. There's still a lot that Congress and the Administration should be doing to boost job creation in America: pass an infrastructure plan, lower the trade deficit, and target tax breaks towards American manufacturing."
The group noted that since 2010 the U.S. manufacturing sector has gained 488,000 jobs since the beginning of 2010, including 136,000 this year.
Despite the meager job creation, the Labor Department data showed unemployment at the lowest level in over three years. The number of unemployed fell by 200,000 to 12.5 million. The drop in unemployment was in part due to workers dropping out of the jobs market. Participation fell to 63.6%.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012 , IW Staff
