Employment in U.S. Probably Slowed as Companies Curbed Spending

http://www.thebeerbarrel.net/showthread.php?7417-Employment-in-U.S.-Probably-Slowed-as-Companies-Curbed-Spending

The pace of hiring in the U.S. probably cooled in April as companies curbed spending in the face of rising raw-material costs, economists said ahead of a government report today.
Payrolls rose by 185,000 workers last month compared with a 216,000 advance in March, according to the median forecast of 86 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The jobless rate may have held at 8.8 percent.
The economic recovery that began in June 2009 may need to generate more jobs to ensure that consumers, whose spending accounts for 70 percent of the economy, will be able to weather rising fuel and food prices. An employment slowdown underscores why Federal Reserve policy makers last week decided to forge ahead with record monetary stimulus to bolster the expansion.
The current, “moderate” rate of job growth “is a pace that really wouldn’t do much for the unemployment rate,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida. “There’s a lot of slack in the economy, especially in the labor market. Higher gasoline prices have been a restraint in the near-term.”
The Labor Department’s jobs numbers are due at 8:30 a.m. in Washington. Bloomberg survey estimates range from payroll increases of 118,000 to 325,000.
Private payrolls, which exclude government positions, are forecast to rise by 200,000 following a 230,000 gain the previous month, according to the survey median. The projected April increase would be the smallest in three months.