“Job growth continued in temporary help services, which was up by 24,000” in April, according to Erica L. Groshen, commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, commenting on the monthly jobs report released today. Seasonally adjusted employment was up 0.8% over March and 9.3% over April of last year. BLS has measured temporary help job growth at about 9% year-to-year since December, the strongest sustained pace since August 2012.

Nonseasonally adjusted BLS data, which estimate the actual number of jobs in the economy, indicated that staffing employment increased by 55,100 in April (up 2.0% from March). On a year-to-year basis, there were 9.7% more staffing employees in April 2014 than in the same month last year.

Total U.S. nonfarm payroll employment increased by 288,000 jobs in April, BLS reported. Monthly job gains averaged 190,000 in the prior 12 months. The April unemployment rate fell by 0.4 of a percentage point to 6.3%.