Highlights

On the surface, the employment report for April looked good. Payroll growth exceeded expectations, increasing by 165,000 . That was 10,000 more than the 155,000 expected by the Briefing.com consensus. Revisions in March, to 138,000 from 88,000, and February, to 332,000 from 268,000, were strongly positive.
The unemployment rate ticked down to 7.5% in April from 7.6% in March. The consensus expected the unemployment rate to remain at 7.6%.

Key Factors

The underlying details point toward weaker consumption levels.
The average workweek dropped to 34.4 hours in April from 34.6 and average hourly earnings increased 0.2%.
The decline in workweek more than offset the increase in payrolls and earnings. Altogether, aggregate wages declined 0.3% in April. That would be the first decline in wages since January.
We are working under the assumption that consumers will gradually raise their savings rate back toward the 3.5% that it averaged during most of 2012. If households increase their savings amid declining wages, there is no chance that consumption levels can remain positive.
It would not be surprising, given these figures, if retail sales decline for a second consecutive month in April.
Unlike in past months, the drop in the unemployment rate was due to more workers finding jobs. The number of employed rose by 293,000.
Unfortunately, most of those new jobs were found in part time employment. The number of employed persons working part time for economic reasons increased by 278,000. That could explain why the average workweek shrank.

The Fed has stated that rates will remain at its current level until the unemployment rate stabilizes below 6.5% or inflation increases above 2.5%. The employment report confirms that the Fed will not change their policy anytime soon.

Category	APR	MAR	FEB	JAN	DEC
Establishment Survey
Nonfarm Payrolls	165K	138K	332K	148K	219K
Goods-Producing	-9K	15K	75K	41K	58K
Construction	-6K	13K	48K	24K	38K
Manufacturing	0K	2K	23K	14K	13K
Service-Providing	185K	139K	244K	123K	166K
Retail Trade	29K	-4K	26K	22K	6K
Financial	9K	5K	15K	7K	9K
Business	73K	64K	93K	46K	35K
Temporary help	31K	26K	28K	12K	12K
Education/Health	28K	46K	31K	15K	36K
Leisure/Hospitality	43K	38K	63K	31K	40K
Government	-11K	-16K	13K	-16K	-5K
Average Workweek	34.4	34.6	34.5	34.4	34.5
Production Workweek	33.7	33.8	33.8	33.6	33.7
Factory Overtime	4.3	4.4	4.3	4.2	4.2
Aggregate Hours Index	-0.4%	0.4%	0.5%	-0.1%	0.5%
Avg Hourly Earnings	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.3%
Household Survey
Household Survey
Civilian Unemp. Rate	7.5%	7.6%	7.7%	7.9%	7.8%
Civilian Labor Force	210K	-496K	-130K	143K	192K
Civilian Employed	293K	-206K	170K	17K	28K
Civilian Unemployed	-83K	-290K	-300K	126K	164K