Surprise fall in US jobless rate

The US has reported a surprise fall in its unemployment rate and in the number of jobs cut by employers, the labour department has said. National unemployment dipped slightly from 5.1 per cent in March to five per cent, while the number of jobs cut in April was 20,000, far fewer than the 80,000 that economists had feared.

George Bush, the US president, said on Friday that despite the figures being better than expected the economy was "not as robust as any of us would like it".

The figures came two days after the US central bank cut interest rates by a quarter-point from 2.25 per cent to two per cent, the lowest rate since December 2004.

On the same day, government figures showed that the US economy had grown by a modest 0.6 per cent in the first three months of 2008.