The number of US temp jobs rose by 9,300 in April from March, according to seasonally adjusted data released today by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Temp jobs increased 2.29% year over year, down from the year-over-year growth rate posted last month.

Today’s revised data also increased March’s previously reported gain of 4,000 US temp jobs to a gain of 9,300, the same as April’s increase.

The temp penetration rate — temp jobs as a percent of total employment — edged up to 2.027% in April from 2.022% in March.

“This jobs report shows an interesting reversal of the dynamic in the two prior months, where overall employment growth was solid but temporary help was notably weak,” said Andrew Braswell, CCWP, senior research analyst at Staffing Industry Analysts. “The temp jobs gained in April combined with the upward revisions to February and March suggest that staffing demand has held up better than we might have thought to this point in 2016.”

For total nonfarm employment, the US added 160,000 jobs in April while March’s gain of 215,000 jobs was revised down to 208,000. Employment gains in April occurred in professional and business services, healthcare and financial activities. Job losses continued in mining.

Bloomberg reports employers in April took on the fewest workers in seven months and fell short of the median forecast in its survey of economists, which called for a gain of 200,000 jobs.

The US unemployment rate remained at 5.0% in April. The college-level unemployment rate — which can serve as a proxy for professional employment — fell to 2.4% in April from 2.6% in March.

April’s jobs gain is consistent with the slowdown in economic activity in recent months, according to Gad Levanon, chief economist, North America, at The Conference Board.

“So far in this expansion, slowdowns in employment growth were just temporary setbacks in an otherwise rapidly expanding workforce,” Levanon said. “We think this time is different. Employers are becoming more cautious as economic growth remains moderate and profits decline.”

However, employment growth is likely to remain strong enough to moderately lower the unemployment rate during the rest of 2016, he said. The labor force participation rate dropped by 0.2 percentage points in April. After growing by 0.6 percentage points between September and March, some bounce back was to be expected.

“As the labor market continues to tighten, we expect more discouraged workers to join the labor force,” Levanon said.

He also noted the report provides more evidence that faster wage growth is taking hold in the US labor market, with average hourly earnings increasing by 2.5% in the past 12 months.

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