Nonfarm payrolls increased a seasonally adjusted 177,000 for the month, slightly below the downwardly revised 185,000 in March but above the Dow Jones estimate for 133,000.
The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.2 percent in April and has remained in a narrow range of 4.0 percent to 4.2 percent since May 2024. The number of unemployed people, at 7.2 million, changed little in April.
“We can push recession concerns to another month. Job numbers remain very strong, suggesting there was an impressive degree of resilience in the economy in play before the tariff shock,” said Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management. “The economy will weaken in the coming months, but with this underlying momentum, the United States has a decent chance of averting recession if it can step back from the tariff brink in time.”
