April Jobless Rate Inches Down to 7.1% : Construction Boom Helps but Oil Prices Cause Some Losses

A construction boom fueled by falling interest rates sent unemployment down slightly to 7.1% in April, but the sharp drop in oil prices caused big job losses in the industrial sector, the Labor Department said today.

The April jobless rate was a tenth of a percentage point lower than the 7.2% mark recorded in March. The unemployment rate was 6.7% in January and then leaped to 7.3% in February.

Oil and gas workers have been devastated by dropping prices, the figures showed. Another 35,000 jobs disappeared in April. In the last three months, one out of eight jobs in the industry has been lost, the government said.

Factory employment also was hit hard. Since January, 85,000 factory jobs have disappeared--generally the victims of foreign competition. The factory job total in April showed that there were 240,000 fewer workers in the industry than there were in January, 1985.

Less Than 60% Regained

The figures also showed that less than 60% of the factory jobs that were lost in the 1981-1982 recession have been regained.

“Mining and factory employment continued to weaken, and the number of unemployed remained above 8 million,” said Janet L. Norwood, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Six of the 21 industries (in a Labor Department survey) actually have employment below the levels that prevailed at the trough of the recession in November, 1982--primary metals, tobacco, textiles, leather, chemicals, and petroleum and coal products,” Norwood said.

The April figures also showed the highest number of people forced to work part time for economic reasons in more than two years. Norwood called the trend “troubling.”

More Working Part Time

In April, another 385,000 people were forced to work part time, bringing the total number of workers in this category to 5.9 million. Most of the increase occurred among workers who suffered cutbacks in the number of hours they could work each week.

But employment continued to grow in the burgeoning service industry--which is among the lowest-paying sectors of the economy. There also was significant improvement in construction, with an April increase of 85,000 jobs.

Heavy construction contractors showed particular gains because of unusually good April weather that permitted an increased number of highway projects.

Also, declining interest rates and the accompanying increased demand for new homes aided contractors in the fields of plumbing, carpentry, masonry and electrical wiring.