• U.S. employers added 211,000 jobs in April and the national unemployment rate fell to 4.4 percent, the lowest level since 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The leisure and hospitality, health care and financial activities sectors were among those adding the most workers in April.
• Average hourly wages for U.S. workers rose 2.5 percent from a year ago, the strongest wage growth this year. Construction workers received a nice raise in April, with wages rising 1.3 percent from March.
• Overall retail jobs, an important source of income for hundreds of thousands of U.S. households and a sector that has been taking a beating in recent months, were largely unchanged in April. Employment at department stores fell by 6,000 jobs nationwide.

After a late bout of wintry weather put a damper on hiring in March, employers bounced back strongly in April, adding enough jobs to bring the unemployment rate down to its lowest level in a decade. Hiring was widespread across a number of different industries, including typically well-paying health care and financial services jobs. This bodes well for continued demand for housing, especially in the nation’s fast-growing coastal cities, which are home to many financial institutions and medical facilities. Wage growth in general has been steady recently, with wages overall up 2.5 percent from a year ago, the fastest pace of wage growth so far this year but still well below the pace of growth in home prices. Continued weakness in the retail sector — a critical source of income for hundreds of thousands of U.S. families — is somewhat worrisome, with department store jobs continuing to fall and wages for those retail workers that have kept their jobs over the past year rising a paltry 0.5 percent. Still, on net, there’s very little to complain about in this report. Employment is essentially as low as it can go, wages keep rising and the overall health of the economy continues to impress.