{"id":785396,"date":"2026-05-10T00:31:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T00:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/785396\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T00:31:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T00:31:23","slug":"april-jobs-report-shows-solid-gains-but-some-potential-red-flags","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/785396\/","title":{"rendered":"April jobs report shows solid gains but some potential red flags"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-a55d003e-8 ggAaRe\">Like a younger brother babysitting his niece or nephew for the first time, yesterday\u2019s jobs report exceeded expectations. US employers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/economy\/u-s-employers-add-a-surprisingly-strong-115000-jobs-in-april-while-unemployment-remains-low\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">added<\/a> 115,000 jobs in April, roughly doubling analysts\u2019 projections and suggesting that the geopolitical factors eroding consumer confidence haven\u2019t yet hurt the job market.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-a55d003e-8 ggAaRe\">According to the Labor Department:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Job gains were once again driven by the healthcare industry, reflective of an aging US population. Transportation, warehousing, and retail sectors also added the most jobs since 2024.<\/li>\n<li>Federal government payrolls declined again, and job cuts also occurred in manufacturing and \u201cinformation employment,\u201d which roughly accounts for tech fields. (The latter category has shed 11% of jobs since peaking in November 2022, when ChatGPT was released.)<\/li>\n<li>The unemployment rate held at 4.3%, as expected.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-a55d003e-8 ggAaRe\"><strong>Combined with even stronger hiring from March,<\/strong> April\u2019s numbers mark the biggest two-month payroll increase since 2024, coming right after the US lost 156,000 jobs in February, reflecting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hr-brew.com\/stories\/april-job-gains-labor-market-stabilizing-for-now\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ongoing volatility<\/a>. While yesterday\u2019s labor dispatch delighted the stock market\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2026some warning signs also flashed<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-a55d003e-8 ggAaRe\">Unemployment may be holding steady, but many Americans are still struggling. Last month:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wage growth increased slightly, to 3.6%. That was below expectations and below the 4.2% rate that economists <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/04\/01\/oecd-predicts-higher-inflation-than-fedwhat-that-means-for-your-money.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">predict<\/a> all-items inflation will hit this year due to tariffs and the Iran war.<\/li>\n<li>A gauge for 1) part-time workers who would prefer full-time employment and 2) job-seekers who gave up on finding work hit its highest rate since December.<\/li>\n<li>The percentage of the population that\u2019s working or seeking work hit its lowest level since October 2021.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-a55d003e-8 ggAaRe\"><strong>Meanwhile, vibes are bad:<\/strong> Consumer sentiment <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/05\/08\/consumer-sentiment-falls-to-fresh-record-low-in-may-as-surging-gas-prices-hit-outlook.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">fell<\/a> to another record low this month as surging gas prices\u2014which hit a nearly four-year high this week\u2014compounded cost-of-living anxiety, according to the University of Michigan\u2019s survey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__StyledText-sc-a55d003e-8 ggAaRe\"><strong>Looking ahead\u2026<\/strong>we\u2019ll get a better idea of how much overall prices have risen recently when the latest CPI data comes out next week. With the job market appearing strong overall, the Federal Reserve could hinge its next interest rate decision primarily on inflation.\u2014ML<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like a younger brother babysitting his niece or nephew for the first time, yesterday\u2019s jobs report exceeded expectations.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":785397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[64,79,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-785396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116547465185464103","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}