Job creation held steady in April as companies shrugged off uncertainty caused by rising energy prices as a result of the war in Iran.
Employers added 115,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported Friday, beating economists’ expectations and providing a note of cautious optimism that the labor market was finally emerging from the stasis of low hiring and low layoffs that characterized much of the past two years. The unemployment rate remained stable at 4.3 percent.
April was the second consecutive month of solid employment growth, following the 185,000 jobs added in March following the revisions. At first glance, the figures took on the sheen of an upward trend.
The overall picture is not so rosy, and it’s unclear whether recent strong hiring will translate into lasting momentum. Taking into account the dismal hiring in February, the last three months have added a relatively glacial average of 48,000 jobs. The workforce shrank in April and the number of unemployed workers increased. Wage growth increased slightly but has been trending downward.
“We’ll need to see a couple more months of this; it’s been volatile,” said Matthew Martin, senior economist at Oxford Economics. “But if we see sustained growth, obviously that would be very positive for the economy.”
The job count was conducted in mid-April, when employers were still assessing the impact of the war in Iran. If higher gas prices persist and consumers pull back more broadly to compensate, economists anticipate that could slow job creation and raise the unemployment rate.
For now, the labor market appears to be unaffected by the whirlwind of geopolitical uncertainty. Although health care and related professions in social assistance still dominated job gains last month, adding nearly 54,000 positions, there was also healthy job growth in other sectors.
Transportation and warehousing, an industry that has been hit by President Trump’s unpredictable tariff policy, added 30,000 positions. The retail and leisure and hospitality industries also increased employment, suggesting that companies put aside for now concerns that consumers would cut back on spending to offset high prices at the pump.
Job losses remain extremely low, even as some high-profile technology and financial companies announced layoffs that stoked fears about the impact of artificial intelligence. The average workweek increased slightly to 34.3 hours, suggesting employers are not cutting workers’ hours.
Dawn Gallagher, president of hospitality for Crescent Hotels & Resorts, a hotel management company based in Fairfax, Virginia, said she was optimistic about the months ahead.
Although there was some weakness in markets such as Washington, D.C., where federal job cuts and other political factors were depressing demand, many of the company’s 120 properties in the United States and Canada were performing well.
Events this summer, including celebrations surrounding the nation’s semiquincentennial, could boost real estate in cities across the country, he said. And the rising cost of airfares, driven by higher fuel prices, could prompt more Americans to travel domestically rather than venture abroad this summer.
For this reason, the company, which has more than 10,000 employees, intends to keep its workforce relatively stable.
“We have some of those summer demands that will keep the summer stronger than if nothing had happened in the summer,” he said.
Becky Frankiewicz, president of ManpowerGroup, a staffing firm, said she was seeing evidence that hiring was picking up after last year’s lull, particularly in the technology sector related to artificial intelligence infrastructure. Mathematicians and data scientists were in notable demand, he said.
“I spend a lot of my time talking to executives,” he said. “This wait-and-see attitude is giving way to, ‘Okay, let’s turn on the tap a little bit in very specific areas and start investing in the future.'”
But there are also warning signs flashing in the April report and in the broader economy. The number of workers employed part-time because they could not find full-time jobs increased by 445,000. Wages rose 3.6 percent compared to last year, but the rate has been falling overall even as prices rise, putting pressure on workers and forcing many to dip into their savings.
And while workers who have jobs are generally secure, those who seek opportunities are often left with nothing. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates ages 22 to 27 has skyrocketed, standing at about 5.6 percent in the first quarter of the year, according to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Megan Reinhardt-Baird is one of many young graduates struggling to find work. Ms. Reinhardt-Baird, 24, graduated from Brigham Young University in 2024 and received a master’s degree in international development from the London School of Economics in December.
She dreamed of working in a social impact job and started applying for positions last April, while she was still in graduate school. She has been looking for work ever since.
Discouraged and increasingly desperate, she has expanded her search to include entry-level jobs in market research and insurance. Between early January and late February, he said, he applied for 80 jobs, which he tracked on a spreadsheet. None resulted in an interview.
Reinhardt-Baird, who lives in Long Beach, California, said she and her husband, an engineer, never imagined they would have to rely on a single income, although she said she felt lucky that her salary had kept them afloat.
Still, she is worried about her career prospects and future.
“I feel less optimistic that I will ever have a job that fulfills me,” he said. “Some days I don’t feel optimistic that I’ll get any work.”
Reflecting this gloomy outlook, consumer confidence in May fell to its lowest level on record, according to the University of Michigan survey.
It’s unclear if and for how long hiring can stay on a strong trajectory. The Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, coupled with an aging population, is reducing the pool of available labor, meaning employers don’t need to hire as many workers to keep up with population growth.
At the same time, unknowns related to the war in Iran and the effect of high gas prices could cause companies to reduce their hiring.
“We’re still in the seventh inning,” said Beth Ann Bovino, chief economist at US Bank. “There is no real victory yet.”
