US stocks have jumped after the Department of Labor reported solid jobs gains for April and a slight decline in the unemployment rate.

Five minutes into trade on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 131.86 (0.89 per cent) to 14,963.44.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 16.01 (1.00 per cent) at 1613.60, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index increased 34.24 (1.02 per cent) to 3374.86.

The US economy added 165,000 jobs in April, better than analysts expected, and upward revisions for the prior two months showed 114,000 more jobs were added than initially estimated.

The unemployment rate fell to 7.5 per cent from 7.6 per cent in March.