Job growth slowed to a still-strong 115,000 in April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, and the unemployment rate held at 4.3%, as the labor market showed surprising strength.
Forecasters had expected around 65,000 new jobs in the month, adjusted for seasonal variations, and for unemployment to be steady.
Recommended Stories
THE STORY IN THE DETAILS OF FRIDAY’S REPORT
Even after downward revisions of 16,000 jobs to the totals for February and April, the job growth numbers are good enough to indicate that the economy is creating more than enough positions to keep unemployment from rising. That is a good sign for President Donald Trump, whose popularity has been eroded by dissatisfaction with the economy.
“The labor market isn’t broken and no one is losing their job,” Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at FWDBONDS, wrote in a note on the report.
Friday’s jobs report adds to signs that the labor market is holding up despite a set of disruptions and headwinds over the past year, including Trump’s trade agenda, persistently high inflation, and, most recently, the energy shock generated by the war in Iran.
Although job growth has slowed as Trump has entered his second year in office, the trend is not as bad for the economy as it might seem at first glance. That’s in large part because Trump has dramatically curbed immigration, meaning that there are fewer people seeking jobs.
The administration has also slashed federal government employment, which Trump officials argue benefits the broader economy.
All of April’s job growth was in the private sector. The federal government shed another 9,000 jobs in the month, and is now down 345,000 employees since Trump took office.
Health care, transportation, warehousing, and retail were the sectors that added payrolls in April.
Still, Trump’s standing with voters has been undermined because of the rising cost of living. Fully 60% of poll respondents disapprove of his handling of the economy, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, and consumer sentiment has recently hit record lows.
KEVIN WARSH SET UP FOR FAILURE WITH POWELL STAYING ON AND MARKETS EXPECTING RATE HIKE
Households are suffering from the cumulative inflation of the past few years. Overall prices are up 25% in the past five years, according to the consumer price index. While the fastest inflation by far occurred on President Joe Biden’s watch, the rate has remained stubbornly high under Trump, and stood at 3.3% in March.
A particular political threat to Trump is the rise in gas prices, which have eclipsed $4.50 on average nationally in recent days. Trump came into office pledging to unleash American energy and lower fuel prices, but the disruptions from the Iran conflict have pushed up prices.
