The US economy lost 20,000 jobs in April, according to non-farm payrolls figures from the Labor Department.
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The jobless rate fell to 5% from 5.1% in March, when it had been expected to increase to 5.2%.
New York shares are expected to open higher as a result, while the US dollar has been strengthening.
Big improvement
US Treasury bond prices fell sharply when the figures were released, as they suggest the economy may not be faring as badly as had been thought and investors decided that interest rate cuts may now be put on hold.
The payrolls figure was a big improvement from the 81,000 jobs lost in March and comes just as consumers are receiving their tax rebate cheques as part of the government's stimulus package.
"It's a lot better than expected, both in terms of the non-farm payroll number and the unemployment rate, so it looks like the economy is in better shape than we thought," said Owen Fitzpatrick of Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management.
"It's a positive, but I don't think it'll be a blowout positive."
"This will alleviate some of the concerns that we're in for a steep reduction in employment and a prolonged, drawn-out recession."
Cautious employers
One of the big areas of job growth in April was professional and business services, while there was a small fall in the average number of hours worked per week to 33.7.
"It looks as if employers are being cautious about cutting employment too severely," said Pierre Ellis at Decision Economics in New York.
"This may well show a pattern of increased use of outside service providers as the outlook becomes more uncertain," he added.
Despite the positive surprise, the drop meant it was the worst run of negative payrolls figures since the five month run from February to June 2003.
(BBC)
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