Employment Situation in April

In each Economic Update, the Research staff analyzes recently released economic indicators and addresses what these indicators mean for REALTORS® and their clients. Today’s update discusses the latest monthly employment report.

• Good news: the unemployment rate fell to 7.5 percent, which is a meaningful improvement over the past four years.
• Bad news: the employment rate – how many of the adult population have jobs - stood at 58.6 percent, which is no improvement over the past four years.
• Good news: the number of people who are unemployed for more than 6 months is falling.
• Bad news: the number of people with part-time jobs due to lack of full-time work remains high with no measurable declines.
• Good news: residential construction jobs increased by 13,300.
• Bad news: non-residential construction jobs decreased by 15,900.
• Good news: 6.2 million net new jobs have been added since the cyclical low point in 2010.
• Bad news: 8 million jobs were shed during the Great Recession, so the job creation mentioned above only implies 77 percent recovery since the last cyclical peak. All the while over the past four years a stream of college graduates has entered the workforce and they are frustrated at the inability to find jobs that match their majors.
• Good news: more jobs mean more housing demand and increased demand for commercial real estate spaces. Therefore, directionally, the real estate market will witness improving conditions.
• Bad news: due to a less than spectacular pace of job creation, the country is going through a deeper divide between those who have jobs and those left out; between those who have stock market investments and those left out; between those recent homebuyers who are experiencing housing wealth and those left out.