How Many Jobs Were Created or Lost in April 2015? Full-time? Part-time?

How Many Jobs Were Created (Gained) or Lost by firms, companies, or government employers in the U.S. in April 2015?

How Many Full-Time Jobs Were Created in 2015?

This report has been updated for June 2015 HERE.

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June 2015 numbers were released Thursday, July 2, 2015.
Details HERE. 

June: +223,000 jobs, Unemp. Rate down to 5.3%.

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• 223,000 TOTAL payroll jobs were ADDED or CREATED in seasonally adjusted numbers.  This number was almost exactly what was projected.

• 213,000 PRIVATE payroll sector jobs were ADDED or CREATED in seasonally adjusted numbers.

• 10,000 GOVERNMENT (federal, state, and local) jobs were ADDED or CREATED in April. 

• 192,000 MORE people employed.

• 252,000 FEWER people employed full-time. 

• 437,000 MORE people employed part-time.

• 125,000 FEWER people employed part-time involuntarily.  (In other words, people who want full-time work but can only find part-time work.)  This number has generally been going down, even when the total number of people working part-time has increased.  This means that, of people working part-time, more are working part-time by choice.  In the past year, the number of people employed part-time involuntarily has decreased by 880,000.

• 26,000 FEWER people unemployed.

• Unemployment rate decreased slightly to 5.4%.  This was actually a very small decline, from 5.47% down to 5.44%.

• The alternate unemployment rate decreased to 10.9% from 10.8%. 

• 166,000 MORE people in the civilian labor force (people either working or looking for work).  What happened to the labor force in April?  Continue reading below...

In NET numbers, NO jobs were lost in April 2015. 

If there are jobs losses, that means that there are fewer new jobs, fewer people being hired, than people being fired or jobs being cut.  If there are jobs gains, that means that there are MORE new jobs, MORE people being hired, than people being fired or jobs being cut. 
Every month since September 2010, we have had more new jobs created than jobs lost.  This is the longest period of consecutive job growth since these records have been kept.
  
Did people leave the labor force in despair, discouragement, and misery?

The labor force in the United States is huge and volatile.  Millions of people enter and leave the labor force every month in the United States; you can find more specifics HERE. 

But here's what happened to people in April:

• In March, there were 156,906,000 people in the civilian labor force.

• 2,296,000 who were not in the labor force in March entered the labor force and started LOOKING FOR WORK in April.

• 4,296,000 who were not in the labor force in March entered the labor force and started WORKING in April. 

• Meanwhile, 2,132,000 people who had been looking for work in March STOPPED LOOKING FOR WORK and left the labor force in April.  This is the third lowest number of unemployed people who "dropped out" of the labor force since late 2008.  It is also the lowest number of unemployed people DROPPING OUT of the labor force in any April of the past 7 years. 

• And 4,341,000 people who had been employed in March STOPPED WORKING (and were not looking for work) in April.  A big chunk of these people probably retired, though we don't know that for sure.  This is the highest number of employed people who stopped working and left the labor force in April since 2007.  

• For every unemployed person who "gave up" for some reason and stopped looking for work and left the labor force, there were approximately TWO EMPLOYED people who left their jobs and left the labor force.
   
• For every unemployed person who "gave up" for some reason and stopped looking for work, approximately THREE people entered the labor force and either started looking for work or started working.

• These numbers, plus adjustments for relatively small numbers of people turning 16, people dying, people leaving or entering the country, resulted in a larger labor force of 157,072,000 in April.  This is the largest labor force that we have EVER had in any April  There are still about 1,652,000 more people in the labor force this April than a year ago.   

As usual, the numbers in any one month need to be taken with a grain of salt, as any movements in any one month are not necessarily trends.

However, we have now had 62 consecutive months of private sector job creation, a record as long as such numbers have been kept.   And we have now had 55 consecutive months of total job creation, a record as long as such numbers have been kept. 

But how many jobs were LOST in April?

All jobs numbers reported monthly by Bureau of Labor Statistics are NET jobs numbers.  In other words, they represent the number of jobs gained (newly created jobs) after all job losses are subtracted.  If there are job gains, that means that there are more new jobs, more people being hired, than people being fired or jobs being cut. 

The more specific numbers of new hires and number of jobs cut are detailed in the monthly Job Openings, Layoffs, and Turnover Survey (JOLTS) which is published about six weeks after the monthly jobs reports.  This link "How Many People were fired in 2014?" provides a more in-depth explanation of how many people lose their jobs and how many people get new jobs every month.  For example, in 2014 over 55,000 people were fired or laid off on average each DAY... but an average of 160,000 people were HIRED each DAY in 2014.

To Summarize:  

In summary, there are more newly-created payroll jobs and more people employed in April, more newly-created jobs than in March, and about as many new jobs as were predicted.  There was a big jump in the number of employed people, but the number of people working full-time declined.  The number of people working part-time by choice increased; the number of people working part-time involuntarily decreased.  

The unemployment rate stayed virtually the same as the number of unemployed people decreased slightly and the number of employed people increased. 

All April highlights and reports are listed HERE.