The Unemployment Report – 5/7/10

Today at 8:30am, the US employment report came out with some interesting results. Unemployment was up to 9.9%. However, there is some optimism contained within the increase. The consensus range was 9.6% to 9.8%, with the prior numbers at 9.7%.

So why is an increasing employment rate good in this case?

The amount of jobs added went up in April even well above what is expected, adding 290,000 jobs to the market.  This is up from 200,000 added in March.

The fact that the employment rate is down is showing that there are more people actively looking for jobs.

The workforce, defined as those looking for employment and have employment, rose to over 800,000 according to the government, and despite increasing job numbers, percentages are down.

This means that optimism about job growth among the unemployed is rising, which is a positive.