If you were looking for a job as a teacher last month, you were in luck. Same goes for health workers, retail clerks and building contractors.
All told, the economy added 180,000 new jobs, dropping unemployment to a 4.4 percent rate that matched a five-year low.
The mostly positive snapshot of the nation’s employment climate, released by the Labor Department on Friday, showed that companies ramped up hiring and paid workers more. That’s good news for employees and jobseekers, and bodes well for the national economy, too, which is suffering a sluggish spell and a painful housing slump.
