Unemployment Rate Dips to 5%; Payrolls Fall by 20,000

U.S. payrolls fell by 20,000 last month in a third straight downturn, and the unemployment rate fell to 5% from 5.1%, the Labor Department said Friday.

The jobs decline followed a revised 81,000 downturn in March that was slightly higher than the 80,000 originally reported.

The downturn was less than the 75,000 forecast by economists, Bloomberg reported. Analysts had forecast the unemployment rate would rise to 5.2%.
 
Manufacturers’ payrolls fell by 46,000, higher than the 30,000 forecast by economists, Bloomberg said. Construction jobs lost 61,000, the most since February of last year.

Service industries added 90,000 workers, the most this year, Labor said.
 
The unemployment-rate gauge is based on a survey of households. The number of payroll jobs added is determined by a separate survey of business and government establishments.