U.S. job growth continued to chug along at a healthy clip in April as the labor market remained surprisingly resilient even in the face of rising interest rates, declining economic growth and bank turmoil.
Employers added 253,000 jobs in April, the Labor Department said in its monthly payroll report released Friday, easily beating the 180,000 jobs forecast by Refinitiv economists. The unemployment rate ticked lower to 3.4%, a historically low level, as more workers left the labor force.
Although the report pointed to solid hiring in April, it also showed much weaker job growth over the previous two months. Gains for February and March were revised down by a total of 149,000 jobs to a respective 248,000 and 165,000, the government said.
The Federal Reserve is closely watching the report for evidence that the labor market is finally softening after months of strong job gains as policymakers try to wrestle inflation under control. Although the consumer price index has cooled from a peak of 9.1% in June, it remains about three times higher than the pre-pandemic average.
Job gains were broad-based last month, with the biggest gains in professional and business services (43,000), health care (40,000) and leisure and hospitality (31,000).
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
