U.S. Labor Market Remains Resilient in April Amid Economic Uncertainty

The U.S. labor market remained resilient in April despite the economic uncertainty caused by the Trump administration’s trade policies. Employers added a surprisingly strong 177,000 workers to payrolls in April 2025, according to a survey of businesses by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those additions were down modestly from the 185,000 jobs added in March but were well above the roughly 135,000 job gains expected by economists. However, job gains from February and March were revised down by 15,000 and 43,000, respectively, equating to 58,000 fewer positions added than previously reported. The Education/Health Services sector (+70,000 jobs) added the most jobs in April. Manufacturing and Other Servies were the only major industries to lose jobs, though the loss was modest at 1,000 jobs. The Government sector overall gained 10,000 jobs during the month. However, the Federal Government segment was down 9,000 jobs in April, with a net loss of 26,000 jobs since January, largely driven by the Department of Government Efficiency initiatives. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate (U3 or headline unemployment rate, which is seasonally adjusted, and is a survey of households) has remained in the narrow range of 4% to 4.2% over the past 12 months and was unchanged from March to April at 4.2%.  

This post is part of a series analyzing employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For more on this data, read previous posts on Job Growth.