Compared with April 2012, the data is slightly worse. In that month, 43 states and the District of Columbia showed a drop in unemployment rates and 7 states posted gains. The good news is that the national unemployment rate has fallen from 8.1% in April 2012 to 7.5% this past April.

Month-over-month job gains were highest in Texas, which added 33,100 jobs in April. New York added 25,300 jobs in April and Florida added 17,000. The largest job losses compared with March data occurred in Wisconsin, which lost 24,000 jobs, and Minnesota, down 11,000 jobs.

Year-over-year, the largest percentage rises in employment occurred in North Dakota (3.7%) and Utah (3.5%). The largest percentage rises in unemployment came in Wyoming (0.5%) and Maine (0.3%). Over the last 12 months, 47 states and the District of Columbia have added jobs, while job losses have piled up in just 3 states.

Nevada had the highest unemployment rate among the states in April (9.6%). The next highest rates were in Illinois (9.3%), Mississippi (9%), and California (9%). North Dakota continues to lead the country with an unemployment rate of just 3.3%.

Here’s the complete BLS data.

HSBC Holdings PLC said Wednesday it will cut around 14,000 more jobs.

The bank will shave up to $3 billion from its cost base and increase shareholder dividends.

In a strategy update, Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver said the bank may struggle to meet its 12%-15% return-on-equity target for full-year 2013 because of the squeeze on revenue from a weakened global economy, but that the target is achievable in the 2014-16 period as the bank makes fresh investments in growing markets and commercial banking.

He said the bank wants to increase dividends to shareholders within a continuing target range of 40%-60% of earnings, and could buy back shares to counteract the dilutive effect from some shareholders collecting their dividends in the form of more shares. HSBC paid out 55.4% of its earnings last year in dividends.

Today’s report was better than all economists were calling for. Bloomberg showed an economist range of 326,000 to 341,000. The consensus from both Bloomberg and Dow Jones was 335,000.

Recent bond strength may need to take a breather if the jobless reports are going to keep getting better and better. The FOMC has set an easy money interest rate policy until unemployment returns to 6.5%, and it even raised the threshold on what it would accept for inflation to get the workforce back to where it needs to be.

This was a good report, but it is just a weekly report. The Federal Reserve likely will keep its finger on the “buy button” for quite a bit longer.

This is the worst environment for teens seeking a job on record, according to nonprofit public policy research organization Employment Policies Institute, which released the report on teen unemployment. In some states, the jobless rate among teens is even higher. In California, an average of 34.6% of teens looking for jobs in 2012 were unemployed. Based on the 2012 average unemployment rates for 16 to 19 year olds, these are the states where teenagers cannot find work.

Click here to see the states where teenagers cannot find work

According to Employment Policies Institute (EPI) Research Director Michael Saltsman, the lack of teens with jobs does not just mean they are going to have less summer spending money. The trend also means that this generation is more likely to lack crucial job experience and connections that could help them in future employment.

“Some people call it ‘soft skills’ and economists call it ‘the invisible curriculum,’” Saltsman said. “But whatever you want to call it, there are a certain set of skills that teens who miss out on them are at greater risk of being unemployed now and in the future.”

The EPI report suggests that a worsening teen job market may be a product of higher minimum wages in these states. However, the data is less clear. In fact, only half the states with the highest teen unemployment rates do not impose a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour.

One factor that Saltsman suggests is behind the record teen unemployment is the overall poor economic conditions in the country, conditions that began in the Great Recession and continue today with a painfully slow recovery. Teens usually work in the leisure and hospitality and retail trade industries, industries that have taken a hit during the recession. Moreover, with the overall labor market also in trouble, more out of jobs adults are willing to take on lower-paying jobs traditionally held by teenagers.

“There’s no question that the teen unemployment rate is high right now,” said Jack Temple, policy analyst at The National Employment Law Project. But it is always high when there is a shortage of jobs. “We have an elevated unemployment rate for workers across the country. Whenever there is elevated unemployment, teen unemployment goes particularly high.”

As the teen unemployment rate has risen, the proportion of teens in the jobs they traditionally occupy — leisure and hospitality and service jobs — has fallen. “For the last ten years, teen share of employment in these industries has fallen anywhere from three to four percentage points,” Saltsman said. In 2003, 14.5% of Californians 16 to 19 year olds were employed in the retail and hospitality business. By 2011, that figure had dropped to just 9.6%, compared to a national rate of 14.4%. In South Carolina, the proportion of teen workers in retail fell from 11.3% in 2003 to just 5.2% in 2011.

The reason the share of teens in these industries has dropped, explained Saltsman, is because the economic downturn led to increased competition. “Older workers are going part-time maybe because they can’t find another position,” Saltsman said. The fact that most of these states have among the highest unemployment rates in the country reflects this.

An additional factor that may make matters worse for teens is educational attainment. The majority of the states with the highest teen unemployment rates had lower high school graduation rates than the national average in 2011. Of the 10 states with the lowest teen unemployment, only one had below-average high school attainment.

Based on information provided by MinimumWage.com, a project by the Employment Policies Institute, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 10 states where the unemployment rate among teens was highest. EPI also provided 24/7 Wall St. with data on minimum wage laws by state as well as figures on teen employment and general employment breakdowns created from the current population survey. Figures on the proportion of teenagers in certain job categories was for 2011, the most recent available year available. Education and poverty figures are from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2011 American Community Survey. Annual average unemployment rates by state are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Worries about whether people will have jobs in the months and years ahead likely undermine consumer spending, the most critical part of gross domestic product (GDP), as much as the habits of those already out of work. Both groups are reluctant to buy any more than the essentials as they guard against having no income at all. Each is likely to pay down debt and save monthly for the same reasons. No matter what the case, all of these habits erode the foundation of economic growth.

A new Gallup poll shows just how deep the problem of anxiety about future employment can be. In a new study, the research firm reports:

Eighteen percent of U.S. workers say it is “very likely” or “fairly likely” they will lose their job or be laid off in the next year, more than said so prior to the 2008 economic downturn, although similar to more recent years.

Clearly, the impression that the recession is not entirely over has stayed with much of the working population. Among the reasons for this are the accurate feelings that the U.S. economy has slowed again, that additions to payrolls have disappeared, that new and higher taxes may cripple the expansion and that austerity could cost public and private employees alike their jobs. People who follow the news can tell that much of the world’s economy has fallen into a recession and that the United States will be affected.

As recently has the start of this year, it appeared that GDP growth could rise above 3% as the year passed and that both consumer activity and export increases would trigger more expansion. Car sales data have been used as proof of that, as have the resurgence of home price sales and price increases of consumer goods. However, there is a suspicion that low interest rates may be behind some of this activity, and that the progress will be short lived if confidence erodes quickly.

The jobs problem is not over at all. That is true if economists look at current numbers. They also ought to look at the deep, long-term worries of workers as well.

Methodology: Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted April 4 to 7, 2013, with a random sample of 499 adults, aged 18 and older, employed full or part time, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Last week, IBM reported its first quarterly earnings miss in eight years, and the company said at the time that it would spend $1 billion cutting jobs among its workforce as a way to reduce expenses. The memo to CDI claims that IBM’s reduction in hours is intended to “retain as many CDI resources as possible for future work.”

Neither IBM nor CDI responded to requests for comment on the memo. At this time, the reduction in hours only applies to the second quarter of 2013. CDI employees make be exempted from the 36-hour rule upon written authorization from IBM management.

Shares of CDI are down more than 6% at $13.82 after posting a new 52-week low of $13.58 earlier today. The stock’s 52-week high is $18.23.

IBM’s shares are up about 0.8% at $201.12 in a 52-week range of $181.85 to $215.90.

Sales of America’s best-selling pickup, the Ford F-Series increased 24 percent, with 59,030 pickups sold. This represents F-Series best April sales results since 2006. It also is the 21st straight monthly sales increase for F-Series — with sales up 19 percent year to date.

USA Today reported on the Ford jobs added:

Spurred by a booming market for fullsize pickups, Ford Motor says it will add a third crew of 900 workers at the suburban Kansas City factory that builds F-150 pickups.

“Fullsize truck sales are growing three times as fast as the industry,” says Joe Hinrichs, Ford Motor executive vice president and president of The Americas. “There’s strong (economic) growth and housing starts are up.”

And:

Ford also confirmed it will begin production late this year of its Transit fullsize van at the Kansas City assembly plant, located at Claycomo, Mo. That will add more than 1,000 jobs there.

After years of huge layoffs, this news is a modest victory for car workers.

The data that uses North Dakota as a microcosm may be attacked because employment in the state is so small. But the improvement to the base of jobs is so impressive that it at least balances that attack.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its report “Employment and Wage Changes in Oil-Producing Counties in the Bakken Formation, 2007–2011“:

The Bakken Formation is an oil-producing shale formation underneath North Dakota, Montana, and parts of Canada. In recent years, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques, combined with higher prices for crude oil, have led to rapid increases in oil extraction from shale formations like the Bakken Formation. As of late 2011, North Dakota was the fourth largest oil-producing state, after Texas, Alaska, and California. The large increase in oil production has led to growth in employment and wages and has changed the industry profile of employment in the region.

Further, in a examination of parts of the state that have benefited the most:

From 2007 to 2011, employment in these counties grew from 77,937 jobs to 105,891 jobs, an increase of 35.9 percent. Total wages paid in these counties more than doubled over the same period: in 2007, workers in these counties earned about $2.6 billion, and in 2011 they earned $5.4 billion. Their average annual pay increased from $33,040 to $50,553 for an increase of 53.1 percent. Over the same period, national employment decreased by 4.4 percent, while average annual pay increased by 8.1 percent from $44,458 in 2007 to $48,043 in 2011.

The numbers become more impressive when the spread of shale exploration and production moves from North Dakota to other states.

Research firm IHS recently released a report with claims that seemed audacious. In that report, “The Economic and Employment Contributions of Shale Gas in the United States,” IHS analysts reported on the potential increase in employment:

The natural gas “shale gale” that has dramatically transformed the outlook for US energy supplies is also having profound economic impacts — creating jobs, reducing consumer costs of natural gas and electricity, stimulating economic growth and bolstering federal, state and local tax revenue, according to a new IHS Global Insight study. The study found that shale gas production supported more than 600,000 jobs in 2010, a number that is projected to grow to nearly 870,000 by 2015.

North Dakota may be small in terms of population, but data from the state about shale’s economic benefits already have begun to prove the case that industry job additions from the new industry will be extraordinary.

The German Federal Labor Agency reported that the number of unemployed persons in the country rose by about 4,000 to 2.94 million in April. The figure is barely a rounding error, unless it is taken in the context of whether the Germany economy can trim its sails and tack away from trouble.

The one hope that Germans had is that the downturn in the European Union could be offset by internal consumption by its citizens and external demand from trading partners, particularly the big economies of the United States, Japan, United Kingdom and China. Based on Germany’s extremely weak GDP and employment numbers, these factors have only barely succeeded in offsetting the crumbling of its economic allies in the area.

As to its large trading partners, the United Kingdom barely has dodged a triple-dip recession, and experts say that its drive to austerity to balance the national books will not allow GDP to improve. Japan may not be in full recession, and the Bank of Japan may have set policies to help its economy recover, but the results of its easing will take months to set in. Data about the U.S. economy has signaled what is at least a pause in expansion, perhaps because of high taxes and government expense cuts. China is still the healthiest of the world’s big economies, but its GDP expansion rate has tapered off too.

German consumers likely will follow the pattern of most consumers during periods when employment is threatened. They spend less and pay down personal debt. And they wait. That wait will continue until the jobs situation begins to turn around.

That waiting, coupled with modest export opportunities, is often a cause of a real downturn.