Healthcare and professional & business services emerge as major drivers of non-farm employment growth in April 2023

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 253,000 in April, and the unemployment rate changed little at 3.4 percent.Employment continued to trend up in professional and business services, health care, leisure and hospitality, and social assistance. Both the unemployment rate, at 3.4 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, at 5.7 million, changed little in April. The unemployment rate has ranged from 3.4 percent to 3.7 percent since March 2022.

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (3.3 percent), adult women (3.1 percent), teenagers (9.2 percent), Whites (3.1 percent), Blacks (4.7 percent), Asians (2.8 percent), and Hispanics (4.4 percent) showed little or no change in April.