Job growth in April was stronger than expected despite concerns about President Donald Trump’s blanket tariffs being affected by US trading partners.
Non-farm payroll increased seasonally to 177,000, a seasonally adjusted 177,000, a 177,000-plus-down 185,000 in March, a Dow Jones estimate of 133,000, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
As expected, the unemployment rate, held at 4.2%, indicates that the labor market is relatively stable. A survey of households used to calculate unemployment rates showed even stronger benefits, with an increase of 436,000 people reporting to hold employment that month.
The broader unemployment meter, including workers and unemployed workers who work part-time for economic reasons, or including unemployed workers, is lower at 7.8%. Workforce participation rate rose to 62.6%.
Stock market futures rose after release, similar to Treasury yields.
“We can push the recession concerns up another month. The number of jobs remains very strong, suggesting that there was an impressive degree of resilience in the economy playing before the tariff shock.” “The economy will weaken in the coming months, but this fundamental momentum could potentially avoid the recession if the US can retreat from the brink of tariffs.”
The report comes amidst an uncertain climate where Trump kicked off April after hitting 10% more than 10% on US imports and threatening other “mutual” mandate menus in dozens of other countries.
However, Trump later decided to place a 90-day hold on mutual tariffs, which are awaiting ongoing negotiations. Recently, White House officials have shown that deals with some affected countries are approaching, despite no official announcements.
Strong reports have boosted traders’ expectations for interest rate cuts through July, according to CME Group’s FedWatch futures pricing.
Healthcare continues to be a leader in job creation, adding 51,000 jobs. Other sectors that post profits include transportation and warehouse (29,000), financial activities (14,000), and social assistance.
The federal government reported losing 9,000 jobs that month to cut public sector salaries amid Trump’s efforts led by Elon Musk and government efficiency. Federal employment has fallen just 26,000 since January, as employees have retired but are not counted as unemployed.
Manufacturing also lost a small amount of 1,000 jobs.
“This first employment report is far too early for tariffs to appear on the day after engagement,” says Daniel Zhao, lead economist at job review site Glassdoor. “It may be too early as businesses are down their inventory. But today’s report sets up benchmarks to measure the impact of tariffs.”
On the wage side, average hourly revenue rose only 0.2% that month, but fell below the forecast of 0.3%, while the annual rate of 3.8% was also 0.1 percentage points lower since July 2024, at the lowest.
The revision made employment totals for the previous months lower than previously reported.
In March, the BLS reduced its initial estimate to 43,000, with the number in February falling to 102,000, down by 15,000.
The report will be located just before the Federal Reserve Policy Conference next week.
Central bank officials are currently in a quiet time heading for the two-day session, which will end on Wednesday. However, these days they have expressed great concern about addressing the potential inflation effects from tariffs and have shown a waiting approach before adjusting interest rates.
The market is widely hopeful that the Fed will stabilize its benchmark short-term borrowing rate at the meeting, but it was cut by a quarter point in July and another 2-3 points by the end of the year.
After the report, the president once again called on the Fed to lower interest rates.
“Consumers have been waiting for years to see prices fall. There’s no inflation. Trump said in the Social Post of Truth.
