Payroll employment rises 115,000 in April; unemployment rate changes little (8.1%)

[DallasNE]

18. Not That Good

But March was revised from 120,000 to 154,000. These adjustments tend to be in the same direction as jobs. When the economy loses jobs the adjustments increase the jobs lost and when the economy adds jobs, as is currently happening, the adjustments increase the jobs added.

But these kind of weaker numbers are to be expected with high gas prices taking from demand for other goods and services that could drive businesses to hire additional workers and this trend could continue. Expectations also play a big role with employers and with the payroll tax cut extension looking doubtful for quite a while it could have been a drag.

I'm not sure how to read the productivity numbers. Normally when they are stagnant, like they are in just about everything but manufacturing where they are strong, it indicates employers may be about to shed jobs. A drag on productivity can also occurs when employers fail to modernize and they need to make new investments in plant and equipment. We know that investment has been lagging. Which is it? I don't have the data to venture a guess.