After several months of good employment news, Puerto Rico's employment situation slipped for the first time since September.
In the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' household survey, total employment declined 0.5% in April from March. Employment in this survey had gone up on a month-to-month basis for the previous six months.
In the household survey, the number of employed rose 1.4% in April from April 2014.
Similarly, the unemployment rate in April was 12.2%, up 0.4 percentage points from March but down 1.6 percentage points from April 2014.
The bureau also released employment statistics based on a survey of employers. This showed total employment down 0.09% in April from March and down 0.4% from March 2014. It showed private sector employment down 0.01% in April from March.
Private sector employment increased from a year earlier in March and in April. The total for April was up 0.5% from that of April 2014.
All the figures used in the above comparisons were seasonally adjusted.
For the last eight years Puerto Rico's economy has either been in recession or been generally weak. Bond analysts have been looking for economic growth as a means to improve government revenues and reduce the financial pressure on the commonwealth government.
