A help wanted sign on Yonge Street in Toronto.The Globe and Mail
The U.S. economy is showing more signs of creaking, with the latest snapshot on employment gains falling far short of expectations.
The Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls grew by just 115,000 positions in April -- well below economists' expectations for about 160,000 job gains, and even those expectations had been set relatively low with the recent barage of disappointing economic data. The unemployment rate fell slightly, to 8.1 per cent, but that provided little optimism about this latest twist in the U.S. economic recovery.
U.S. index futures, which had been relatively flat prior to the release of the payrolls report at 8:30 a.m. (ET), moved lower after the release. Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average were recently spotted down less that 0.1 per cent.
David Berman