Hiring in the United States remained stable in April as businesses embraced the uncertainty caused by higher energy prices as a result of the war in Iran.
Employers added 115,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported Friday. That exceeded economists’ expectations and expressed cautious optimism that the labor market is finally emerging from the low-wage and low-wage stagnation that characterized much of the last two years. The unemployment rate remained constant at 4.3 percent.
April was the second straight month of solid job growth, following corrections that added 185,000 jobs in March. At first glance, the numbers looked like an upward trend.
The overall picture isn’t all that rosy, and it’s not clear whether the robust hiring will translate into lasting momentum. Taking February’s dismal hiring numbers into account, an average of 48,000 new jobs have been created over the past three months. The labor force shrank in April and the number of unemployed rose. Wage growth rose slightly but trended downward.
“This is going to take us a few more months; it’s been volatile,” said Matthew Martin, senior economist at Oxford Economics. “But if we see sustainable growth, that would of course be a big benefit for the economy.”
The job count took place in mid-April, while employers were still assessing the impact of the war in Iran. If higher gas prices continue and consumers generally retreat to compensate, economists say it could slow job creation and increase the unemployment rate.
At the moment, the labor market appears to be unaffected by geopolitical uncertainty. Although health care and related social assistance occupations still dominated job growth last month, adding nearly 54,000 jobs, there was healthy job growth in other sectors as well.
30,000 jobs were created in transportation and warehousing, an industry that has suffered from President Trump’s unpredictable tariff policies. The retail and leisure and hospitality industries also added jobs, suggesting that companies have brushed aside concerns for now that consumers would pull back on spending to offset increased prices at the pump.
Job losses remain extremely low, although some big-name technology and financial companies have announced layoffs, raising fears about the impact of artificial intelligence. Average weekly working hours increased slightly to 34.3 hours, suggesting that employers are not reducing employees’ working hours.
Dawn Gallagher, president of hospitality at Crescent Hotels & Resorts, a hotel management company based in Fairfax, Virginia, said she is optimistic about the coming months.
Although there was some weakness in markets such as Washington, D.C., where federal government job cuts and other political factors depressed demand, many of the company’s 120 properties in the United States and Canada performed well.
Events this summer, including celebrations surrounding the country’s 500th anniversary, could boost real estate in cities across the country, she said. And rising airfares, driven by higher fuel prices, could prompt more Americans to travel domestically rather than venture abroad this summer.
The company therefore wants to keep its workforce relatively stable with more than 10,000 employees.
“We have some of these summer demand factors that are going to make the summer stronger than if nothing happened in the summer,” she said.
Becky Frankiewicz, the president of ManpowerGroup, a staffing firm, said she is seeing signs that hiring is picking up after last year’s lull, particularly in the technology sector around AI infrastructure. Mathematicians and data scientists are particularly in demand, she said.
“I spend a lot of time talking to leaders,” she said. “This waiting gives way to the idea: ‘Okay, let’s open the tap a little in very specific areas and start investing in the future.’”
But there are also warning signs in the April report – and in the broader economy. The number of workers working part-time because they couldn’t find full-time work increased by 445,000. Wages rose 3.6 percent compared to last year, but despite rising prices the rate has largely fallen, putting pressure on workers and forcing many to dip into their savings.
And while workers who have jobs are generally secure, those looking for opportunities are often left empty-handed. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates ages 22 to 27 has skyrocketed, reaching 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 the many recent graduates struggling to find a job. 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 job that focused on social impact and began applying for jobs in April last year, when she was still in graduate school. Since then she has been looking for a job.
Discouraged and increasingly desperate, she expanded her search to include entry-level jobs in market research and insurance. She said she applied for 80 jobs between the beginning of January and the end of February, which she recorded in a spreadsheet. None led to an interview.
Ms. Reinhardt-Baird, who lives in Long Beach, California, said she and her husband, an engineer, never expected to have to rely on a single income, although she said she was happy that his salary had kept them afloat.
However, she is worried about her career prospects and her future.
“I’m less optimistic that I’ll ever have a job that feels fulfilling to me,” she said. “Some days I’m not optimistic that I’ll even get a job.”
Because of this bleak outlook, consumer sentiment fell to its lowest level on record in May, according to the University of Michigan survey.
It is unclear whether and for how long the recruitment policy can remain on a stable course. The Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, along with the aging population, is causing the available labor pool to shrink, meaning employers don’t need to hire as many workers to keep up with population growth.
At the same time, unknowns surrounding the war in Iran and the impact of high gas prices could cause companies to cut hiring.
“We’re still in the seventh inning,” said Beth Ann Bovino, chief economist at US Bank. “There is no real victory yet.”