The U.S. unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.3% in April from the month before, as hiring remained resilient despite a volatile economic backdrop.
The latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday showed that nonfarm payrolls grew by 115,000 jobs last month, far more than the 55,000 that economists had expected.
“Numbers like these are enough to hold the labor market steady,” says Realtor.com® senior economist Jake Krimmel.
The job market sectors that experienced the biggest gains in hiring in April included health care (+37,000), and transportation and warehousing (+30,000), and retail trade (+22,000), as federal government employment continued to decline.
Since peaking in October 2024, federal government employment is down by 348,000 jobs, or nearly 11.5%, with an additional 9,000 payrolls cut in April.
“For the Federal Reserve and the broader economic outlook, no news is genuinely good news right now,” says Krimmel. “Policymakers are already dealing with enough fires on the inflation and geopolitical front, with more FOMC members signaling the committee should be open to a hike as their next rate move.”
The economist adds that a steady labor report gives a divided Fed and the incoming chair space to focus on prices.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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Snejana Farberov is a reporter at Realtor.com covering the U.S. housing market and the latest domestic real estate trends. She has worked as a general assignment journalist in New York City and Long Island for 16 years, writing for New York Post, Daily Mail, and News 12. Snejana earned bachelor’s degrees in journalism and Italian from St. John’s University, followed by a master’s degree from Columbia University School of Journalism.
