The US economy continues to produce more jobs despite the being close to full employment. The unemployment rate has remained at or under 4% since April 2018 while annual increases in hourly pay have remained above 3% for seven consecutive months. The latest figures indicate the unemployment rate has been pushed even lower.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US economy created 263,000 jobs in the non-farm sector in April. Economists had been expecting around 180,000 additional positions. The unemployment rate fell from 3.8% to 3.6% as the total number of unemployed people fell by 377,000 to 5.834 million while the total number of people employed in both the farm and non-farm sectors fell by 103,000 to 156.645 million.
US bond yields finished slightly lower overall, although yields at the front of the curve did actually increase a little. By the end of the day, 2-year Treasury bond yields had crept up 1bp to 2.34%, 10-year yields had lost 2bps to 2.52% and 30-year yields had slipped 1bp to 2.92%.