It has been reported that the U. S. Labor Department will release April employment data Friday and economists are optimistic the economy will show stronger jobs creation.

The consensus forecast, based on surveys of economists taken at the end of last week, is for a 200,000 jobs gain in April, after adding 161,000 jobs in March. The unemployment rate is expected to drop to 9.6 percent. My forecasts for April are 180,000 jobs added and 9.7 percent unemployment.

The news report has revealed that the Great Recession destroyed 8.4 million jobs. To bring down the unemployment rate, the economy must add about 150,000 jobs a month to accommodate adult population growth, re-entry of discouraged workers, part-time employees who would prefer full-time work and marginally occupied self-employed workers. Including these three groups, unemployment is closer to 20 percent than the 9.7 percent headline figure.

Overall, the economy must add more than 13 million jobs to bring unemployment down to 6 percent by the end of 2013. With state and local governments facing tough financial constraints, the private sector must add at least that many jobs to accomplish the task.

It was further reported that accounting for productivity, population growth and labor force re-entry, the economy and private business sector must grow at better than 3 percent a year to bring unemployment down and that is a tough challenge.

Gross domestic product growth in the first quarter was 3.2 percent but inventory adjustments accounted for about half that growth. Private demand, private consumption, investment and net exports, only added about 1.6 percentage points. Government spending, even with stimulus disbursements, subtracted 0.4 percentage points from growth. (With Inputs from Agencies)