News
Labor Market Held Steady In April, Adding More Jobs Than Expected
Key Takeaways
The job market stayed resilient in April despite the uncertainty created by President Donald Trump's unpredictable tariff campaign.
The U.S. economy added 177,000 jobs in April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. That was a slowdown from a downwardly revised 185,000 in March, but more than the 133,000 forecasters had expected according to a survey of economists by
Dow Jones Newswires
and
The Wall Street Journal
. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%, which is not high by historical standards.
The jobs report was
highly anticipated
, as financial markets and Federal Reserve officials are examining the impact Trump's drive to raise import taxes will have on the economy.
A sharp decline in job growth would have been a red flag that a recession is on the way . Instead, the steady job growth showed the hiring market may be healthy enough to stay afloat at least for the time being.
The lack of distress in the job market could come as a relief to officials at the Federal Reserve, who would be
pressured to lower interest rates
to boost the economy and rescue the job market if there were signs of mass layoffs.
“Strong jobs data puts a spring in the Fed’s step," Lindsay Rosner, head of multi-sector fixed income investing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, wrote in a commentary. "Despite an increasingly uncertain economic backdrop, the U.S. labor market remained resilient in April."
Read the original article on Investopedia