
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 5, 1990                   TAG: 9005050167
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

JOBLESS RATE VAULTS TO 5.4

The nation's unemployment rate climbed to 5.4 percent in April, its highest level in more than a year, the government said on Friday in a report analysts called a disturbing sign the economy could slip into recession.

There was paltry growth in the number of U.S. jobs for the second straight month, and the total actually would have declined if not for the hiring of temporary census workers.

"The report indicates the bottom dropped out of the labor market in April. It speaks more toward a possible recession than a rebounding economy," said Allen Sinai, chief economist at the Boston Co.

Traders took weaker-than-expected employment - a report running counter to recent indications that the economy was picking up - as a sign the Federal Reserve would not boost interest rates to slow things down. The government reported last week that the economy grew at a 2.1 percent rate in the first three months of the year, twice as fast as some private analysts had predicted.

In April, the civilian jobless rate as measured by a household survey was up from the 5.2 percent registered in March. Before that, the unemployment rate had held steady at 5.3 percent for nine months.

The last time the jobless rate reached 5.4 percent was January 1989.

- Associated Press

by CNB