The unemployment rate was unchanged in April as hiring in the second month of the Iran war exceeded consensus estimates by a sizable margin.
Figures published Friday in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly jobs report show concentrated gains in the health care, transportation and warehousing sectors fueling total payroll additions of 115,000 last month.
Initial estimates of 178,000 job gains in March were revised upward to 185,000 in Friday’s report, which offered a sign of assurance after employers lopped off 156,000 jobs in February. The steady growth in hiring is all the more notable for occurring amid the onset of early economic pressures linked to the Iran war, like spiking energy costs.
Economists polled by the data firm FactSet ha...