Employment changes by industry, April 2011

Employment in retail trade rose by 57,000 in April. Within the industry, employment in general merchandise stores increased by 27,000, offsetting a decline of similar magnitude in the prior month.

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Employment in professional and business services continued to expand in April, with an increase of 51,000. Job gains occurred in management and technical consulting services (+11,000) and in computer systems design and related services (+8,000).

Health care (part of education and health services) continued to add jobs in April (+37,000). Within health care, job gains continued in ambulatory health care (+22,000) and hospitals (+10,000).

Employment in leisure and hospitality continued to increase (+46,000). Over the past 3 months, this industry added 151,000 jobs, with nearly two-thirds of the growth in food services and drinking places.

Manufacturing employment rose by 29,000 in April. Since reaching an employment low in December 2009, manufacturing has added 250,000 jobs.

Mining (part of mining and logging) added 11,000 jobs. Since a recent low point in October 2009, employment in mining has increased by 107,000.

Employment in both state government and local government (included in the government sector) continued to trend down, with April losses concentrated in the non-educational components.

Overall, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 244,000 in April, and the private sector added 268,000 jobs.

These data are from the Current Employment Statistics program. Data are seasonally adjusted and preliminary. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation – April 2011," (HTML) (PDF) news release USDL-11-0622.