It's been awhile since we've published a post on the country's employment situation report here at OnlineCareers.com, and luckily for our readers, you guys haven't missed much, save for a few months of heightened unemployment and discouraging job losses. We return to you with April's report, which reflects a decline of 20,000 positions in the U.S. over the course of the month. Sadly, when compared with the results from the past few reports, this cut in jobs is negligible &mdash what I like to call small potatoes. The country has sustained some large payroll losses over the past few months: in January, February, and March combined; the nation managed to drop 240,000 positions.

Most of the major U.S. employment statistics remained unchanged in April. The country's unemployment rate has stagnated around 5.0 percent. The revised unemployment rates for most of the major worker groups in the U.S. revealed minimal changes, and a decrease in the case of adult women (down to 4.3 percent). This was a welcome change following significant spikes in the rates for most of these groups in March. The employment-population ratio held steady at 62.7 percent, and the labor force participation rate (at 66.0 percent) displayed similar inactivity.

The construction industry underwent the most devastating cuts in April, with a loss of over 60,000 positions among specialty trade contractors and within residential and heavy and civil engineering construction. The manufacturing sector cut close to 50,000 jobs as well, while the retail trade industry tacked on an additional loss of 26,800 positions. Several service-providing industries posted impressive gains over the past month, but the deficits mentioned above proved too significant to offset.

Of the industries that landed in the plus column in April, contributions from health care and professional and business services had the most impact, helping to lessen our overall losses for the month. Specifically, the health care and social assistance sectors added over 43,000 positions. Ambulatory health care services alone added close to 22,000 jobs. Food services and drinking places also added 18,000 positions. Within professional and technical services, an industry that gained over 26,000 jobs in April, computer systems design (+10, 200 jobs) and accounting and bookkeeping services (+9,100 positions) experienced some of the healthiest growth. Administrative and support services added 13,000 positions last month as well.

Overall, things haven't changed that much since the start of 2008, or even further back into 2007 if we consider which industries are adding positions and which ones are losing ground. Sizeable declines in construction and manufacturing were the primary reasons why the U.S. posted an overall loss in jobs in April. On the other hand, health care and a handful of service industries have been the only constants when it comes to job creation in the U.S. lately. It's worth noting that the American workforce has enjoyed moderate increases in their hourly pay over the past few months. While April only brought about a single-cent increase in wages, our average hourly earnings (which now sit at $17.88) have jumped 3.4 percent within the last 12 months.