US adds jobs, unemployment unchanged

The nation added 160,000 jobs in April, but the U.S. unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5 percent.

The country realized gains in the professional and business services, health care and financial activities industries. However, the mining industry continued to fall. The jobless rate was not seasonally adjusted, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics news release.

Professional and business services added 65,000 jobs in April, resulting in an average of 51,000 jobs added per month over the prior 12 months. April gains were in the areas of management and technical consulting services and in computer systems design.

Health care employment rose by 44,000, with the most increase in hospitals and ambulatory health care services, according to the BLS.

Employment in financial activities rose by 20,000 in April, with credit intermediation and related activities contributing.

Since reaching a peak in September 2014, employment in mining has decreased by 191,000, with more than three-quarters of the loss in support activities for the industry, according to the release.

For the month, 1.7 million people were marginally attached to the labor force, down by 400,000 from a year earlier, meaning they were not in the labor force, but sought a job sometime in the prior 12 months, according to the BLS. The number of long-term unemployed – those jobless for 27 weeks or more – declined by 150,000 to 2.1 million.