Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the jobs report for April with a positive surprise: many more jobs were added than expected, with a significant drop in the unemployment rate to boot.

April was projected by economists to bring an added 218,000 jobs to the market but, according to the Bureau, resulted in a promising addition of 288,000. This continues the expected upward climb of job openings in 2014 that has yet to disappoint: March and February both broke 200,000 this year, each bringing in over 10,000 jobs more than the 190,000 monthly average in 2013. And while “glacial” may have been a term used by some to describe economy growth in the first quarter of this year—a fitting term given the harsh winter the slow growth has been attributed to—April seems to be picking up the pace.

This release only includes preliminary numbers, which means that the number of new jobs in April can very well near the 300,000 mark upon further review, as both March and February were revised after the release of their initial job reports to add upwards of 15,000 jobs.

In addition to the rise in job openings, the unemployment rate has dropped from 6.7% to 6.3% this past month, the lowest it’s been since the financial crisis. This is also an improvement on the projected numbers for April, which were predicted to land at about 6.6%. In fact, judging by the month-by-month projected unemployment rates released on April 18^th by the Financial Forecast Center, we are now at an unemployment rate low we were not expected to reach until September.

This is excellent news for those currently unemployed or looking for a change in their careers. Specifically, Forbes noted that the sectors with the most new jobs included retail, construction, and healthcare, but many other industries are experiencing growth as well. With the warmer weather approaching, job seekers across the board can hope to see a continuing climb in job openings as the market continues to recover and thrive.