The U.S. economy added 164,000 jobs in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent — the lowest reading since 2000.
In addition, the number of jobs added in March was revised upward to 135,000, while the number added in February was revised down to 324,000. With revisions, the BLS reports the past three months have seen an average increase of 208,000 jobs per month.
The report appears to have good news for real estate investors. Kevin Thorpe, global chief economist at Cushman & Wakefield, noted on Twitter that a low unemployment rate equals high job security, which equals strong consumer spending and is a strong multiplier for commercial real estate across nearly all product types.
Some of the strongest employment categories in April were professional and business services (which added 54,000 jobs), manufacturing (up 24,000 jobs), healthcare (up 24,000 jobs) and mining (up 8,000 jobs).
Of particular interest to Fed-watchers, average hourly earnings increased $0.04, representing an annual rise of 2.6 percent. That was lower than the 2.9 percent annual increase reported in January. This may suggest the Federal Reserve will take a more cautious approach to interest rate increases this year.
At its meeting May 1–2, the Federal Open Market Committee, maintained the current target range for the federal funds rate at 1.50 percent to 1.75 percent.
The U.S. economy appears in a position of moderate growth. The advance estimate for first quarter GDP growth from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, released last week, was 2.3 percent.
