The US unemployment rate shot up to its highest level in more than seven years in April, the government said today.
The US Labor Department said 43,000 jobs were created in April but that followed a sharply revised loss of 21,000 jobs in March. The unemployment rate climbed to 6 per cent in April - its highest since a matching 6 per cent in August 1994 - from 5.7 per cent in March.
Wall Street economists had forecast that 41,000 jobs would be created in April and that the unemployment rate would edge up to 5.8 per cent.
But revised government figures show jobs were lost in each of the first three months this year - 109,000 in January, four thousand in February and 21,000 in March. Those figures suggest recovery in the labour market may lag other improving economic sectors for some time.
The Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee is expected to take soft job markets into consideration when it meets to consider interest-rate strategy next Tuesday.
It is likely to decide to keep rates steady at current 40-year lows until there are firmer indications of a sustained economic recovery.