Leadership Conference on Civil Rights

Employers cut jobs for a fourth month in April, though not as vigorously as feared, according to a government report Friday that also showed an unexpected improvement in the unemployment rate last month.

The Labor Department said 20,000 jobs were shed last month, far fewer than the 80,000 that economists surveyed by Reuters had anticipated would be lost. That followed upwardly revised losses of 81,000 jobs in March and 83,000 in February. Employers cut 76,000 jobs in January.