April 19, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added 228,000 jobs last month, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2%.
The hiring numbers were up from 117,000 in February and were nearly double the 130,000 that economists had expected. Labor Department revisions shaved 48,000 jobs off January and February payrolls.
Workers’ average hourly earnings rose 0.3% from February, about what economists had expected. Compared to a year earlier, hourly pay was up 3.8%, a bit lower than the 4% that had been forecast and nearing the 3.5% year-over-year gains that are seen as consistent with the Federal Reserve's 2% annual inflation target.
Healthcare companies added almost 54,000 jobs, and restaurants and bars nearly 30,000 as the job market bounced back from bitter winter weather in January and February. The federal government lost 4,000.
The job market has cooled from the red-hot hiring days of 2021-2023. Employers added 151,000 jobs in February and 125,000 in January. Not bad, but down from monthly averages of 168,000 last year, 216,000 in 2023, 380,000 in 2022, and a record 603,000 in 2021 as the economy surged back from COVID-19 lockdowns.
“The market needed today’s number,” said Seema Shah, Chief Global Strategist, Principal Asset Management. “Everyone knows that economic weakness is coming, but at least we can be reassured that the labor market was robust coming into this policy-driven shock and therefore, the slowdown should not be overly steep.”
The economy has been remarkably durable in the face of high interest rates.
In 2022 and 2023, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate 11 times to combat inflation. Economists expected the higher borrowing costs to tip the United States into recession. But they didn’t. Consumers kept spending, employers kept hiring, and the economy kept growing.
Inflation came down – allowing the Fed to cut rates three times last year. But then progress against inflation stalled, forcing the Fed to put off more rate cuts this year.
