Instant View: April nonfarm payrolls up by 165,000

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Employment rose more than expected in April, pushing the unemployment rate to a four-year low of 7.5 percent, which could help ease concerns of a sharp slowdown in the economy.

Nonfarm payrolls rose 165,000 last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. March's payrolls were raised to 138,000, 50,000 more jobs than previously reported, and February's job count was revised up to 332,000, the largest since May 2010.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected April payrolls to rise 145,000 and the unemployment rate to hold steady at 7.6 percent. The drop in the unemployment rate last month reflected an increase in employment, rather than people leaving the workforce.

COMMENTS:

JOHN KILDUFF, PARTNER AT AGAIN CAPITAL IN NEW YORK:

"This was a very strong report, it's not necessarily from the headline number, but the upward revisions were quite strong, particularly the February data being revised upwards over 300,000 new jobs.

"Clearly that's lending strength here to the outlook for the U.S. economy and for energy demand, which is quite sensitive to employment outlook and state of employment in general."

OMER ESINER, CHIEF MARKET ANALYST, COMMONWEALTH FOREIGN EXCHANGE, WASHINGTON:

"It was a good number. Certainly better than expected in the headline reading but perhaps more importantly were the very strong upward revisions to the March and February numbers.

"Combined with the decline in the jobless rate the revisions help suggest that the Spring slowdown may not be as pronounced as feared. It is good news for the dollar especially in light of the Fed's statement this week which put even more focus on upcoming U.S. economic numbers."

JOE MANIMBO, MARKET ANALYST, WESTERN UNION BUSINESS SOLUTIONS, WASHINGTON:

"It was surprisingly positive. This shows the job market and the economy in general appear to be more resilient than investors had feared. The weight this jobs report carries from month to month can go some way to reviving the notion that the Fed could taper later this year. And the big revision to February suggests we could even see a revision to first quarter growth."

TOM PORCELLI, CHIEF U.S. ECONOMIST, RBC CAPITAL MARKETS, NEW YORK:

"Looking at the headlines alone it is a positive report, however, taking it all in aggregate it is much more mixed.

"A couple of things drive this home, namely average weekly earnings are down and aggregate hours. Those are more forward looking metrics and how it will unfold in the fourth quarter that is not encouraging. This report confirms that the labor market backdrop remains very much uneven."

MARKET REACTION: STOCKS: U.S. stock index futures rose BONDS: U.S. bond prices fell along with German Bund futures FOREX: The dollar jumped versus yen, euro turned negative

(Americas Economics and Markets Desk; +1-646 223-6300)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/instant-view-april-nonfarm-payrolls-165-000-124705214.html

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