National Trends: 290,000 new jobs added in April

The official U.S. unemployment rate rose to 9.9 percent in April from 9.7 percent in March, but the economy added many more new jobs last month than had been expected.

The economy added 290,000 new jobs last month, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said moments ago. Forecasters expected 162,000 new jobs to be created.

This is a very strong monthly jobs report despite the tick up in the unemployment rate, which will draw all the headlines. Even the increase in the unemployment rate is a good sign. Why? Because it means that discouraged workers -- people who actually had given up looking for work -- are reentering the job market.

Some 800,000 workers reentered the job market last month. Many of them did not find jobs, so the unemployment rate increased from 9.7 to 9.9 percent. But they're looking for work again and that's a strong sign. The Labor Department counts you as unemployed only if you're jobless and looking for work. If you're jobless and not looking for work, it counts you as a "discouraged" worker and removes you from the labor market. That can sometimes cause an artificial tick down in the overall unemployment rate.

Read the full article in the Washington Post here.