The U.S. economy added jobs in April at a slower pace than a month ago amid uncertainty over economic conditions as well as tax and trade policy.
The U.S. Department of Labor on Friday reported that employers added 177,000 jobs in April. That figure was above the estimate of economists polled by LSEG, though it was cooler than the 228,000 added in March.
The unemployment rate was 4.2%, unchanged from a month ago and in line with the LSEG estimate.
Job gains in the past two months were both revised, with job creation in February revised down by 15,000 from a gain of 117,000 to 102,000; and March job gains downwardly revised by 43,000 from a gain of 228,000 to 185,000. Taken together, employment in February and March was 58,000 lower than previously reported.
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Private sector payrolls grew by 167,000 jobs in April, well above the 125,000 estimated by LSEG.
Government payrolls added 10,000 jobs in April across all levels of government. The decline of 9,000 jobs in the federal government was more than offset by gains of 6,000 in state government and 13,000 in local government. Workers on paid leave or receiving ongoing severance pay are counted as employed in the Bureau of Labor Statistics survey.
Manufacturing payrolls declined by 1,000 jobs in April, a smaller decrease than the 5,000 projected by LSEG economists.
Health care employment grew by 50,600 jobs in April, which was roughly in line with the average monthly gain of 52,000 over the last 12 months. That growth was driven by hospitals (+22,100) and ambulatory health care services (+21,400).
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Transportation and warehousing added 29,000 jobs in April, with gains in warehousing and storage (+9,800), couriers and messengers (+8,400) and air transportation (+2,900). The sector averaged gains of 12,000 jobs per month over the prior year.
Financial activities added 14,000 jobs in April, bringing its gains over the last year to 103,000 jobs.
Social assistance continued to add jobs in April with a gain of 7,600 – though it was a notably slower pace than the average gain of 20,000 over the past 12 months.
The labor force participation rate was 62.6% in April, having changed little over the last year.
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The number of people considered to be long-term unemployed, defined as being jobless for 27 weeks or more, rose by 179,000 to 1.7 million. The long-term unemployed accounted for 23.5% of all unemployed people.
There were 4.7 million workers employed part-time for economic reasons in April, a metric that was little changed. These individuals would’ve preferred full-time work but were working part-time because their hours were reduced, or they were unable to find full-time jobs.
Multiple jobholders decreased by 76,000 in April and represented 5.4% of the workforce, a figure that has been little changed over the last year.
The April jobs report comes amid the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the global trading system through the use of sweeping tariffs on U.S. trading partners, which has created economic uncertainty on top of the White House’s efforts to shrink the federal government.
Elyse Ausenbaugh, head of investment strategy at JPMorgan Wealth Management, noted, “The survey feeding the report occurred in the second week of April, which I remember as the peak of tariff uncertainty and whiplash. Still, the broad labor market remained on solid footing.”
“April may have been the last month when we didn’t see the aggregate impact of trade war 2.0, DOGE job cuts and tight immigration policy – but look closely enough and there are hints, like the slight decline in manufacturing payrolls and another drop in federal government jobs,” Ausenbaugh added.
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