The U.S. labor market stayed the course in April, beating expectations with a total of 177,000 nonfarm jobs added, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Economists polled by the data firm FactSet had been predicting 135,000 seasonally adjusted nonfarm payroll additions in April.
The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%, in line with consensus predictions.
Sam Williamson, senior economist at First American Financial Corp., said in a statement that the back-to-back strong jobs reports in March and April likely means that the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates steady at its monetary policy meeting next week.
“The labor market’s resilience extends another month, with the April jobs report exceeding consensus estimates,” Williamson said. “With the labor market staying strong, the Federal Reserve will likely extend its ‘wait-and-see’ approach to further interest rate cuts as it assesses the impact of tariffs.”
However, Williamson said that downside risks to the jobs outlook remain, “largely due to government layoffs and firms delaying hiring. Some firms are reportedly preparing for layoffs, but announcements remain scarce.”
Williamson added: “Meanwhile, lagging indicators, such as the February Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, show a steady weakening of demand for labor, with fewer vacancies and the lowest hiring rate in roughly a decade (outside the pandemic), though employers remain reluctant to cut jobs.”
Employment in transportation and warehousing increased by 29,000 in April, following the addition of 3,000 of those jobs in March. Construction jobs rose 11% month over month. Real estate and rental and leasing jobs saw a 9.1% increase from the prior month. Federal government employment declined by 9,000 in April and has fallen 26,000 since January.
Markets reacted favorably to the April jobs numbers, with the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq indexes all up in early trading Friday.
President Donald Trump, who has consistently urged the Federal Reserve to lower the benchmark federal funds rate, declared in an early-morning post on Truth Social that employment is “strong,” adding in all caps that “THE FED SHOULD LOWER ITS RATE!!!”
