Employment Situation
Today’s big news was April’s Employment report that was full of surprises, most of them easily labeled as favorable for mortgage rates. For starters, the U.S. unemployment rate rose from March’s 3.8% to 3.9% in April and the number of new jobs was 175,000 compared to the 240,000 that was expected. And the third headline number, average hourly earnings, rose 0.2% for the month and 3.9% year over year, both falling short of forecasts by 0.1%. There is little to find negative in this report, fueling this morning’s bond rally and noticeable improvement in rates.