The U.S. economy added more jobs than forecast in April, easing concern that higher fuel prices are slowing the economic recovery.
Payrolls increased by 244,000 workers last month, the biggest gain since May 2010, after a revised 221,000 gain the prior month, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Economists projected an April rise of 185,000, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Employment excluding government jobs jumped the most in five years. The jobless rate rose to 9 percent, the first increase since November.
More jobs and rising wages may give households, whose spending accounts for 70 percent of the economy, the means to overcome the highest gasoline prices in almost three years. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and some of his colleagues have signaled they plan to forge ahead through June with record monetary stimulus to bolster the expansion.
“The recovery has progressed into the self-propelling stage, where it’s less vulnerable to short-term swings in sentiment,” said Jim O’Sullivan, chief economist at MF Global Inc. in New York, who forecast a gain of 250,000 jobs.
Stock-index futures rose and Treasuries fell after the report. The contract on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring in June climbed 0.9 percent to 1,347.5 at 8:48 a.m. in New York. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note increased to 3.23 percent from 3.15 percent.
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