175K News Jobs Added To US Economy In April

The U.S. economy added 175,000 new jobs in April. While that’s lower than previous months, it’s still positive growth AND the kind of job market cooling the Fed has been looking for to begin lowering interest rates. Economists had estimated somewhere around 240,000 new jobs prior to the new report. The unemployment rate ticked up just slightly to 3.9%, marking the 27 straight months under 4%. https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1786445645257089188 From the New York Times:

The overall picture was one of a labor market that remains solid but is gradually slowing — exactly what officials at the Fed have been looking for.

Central bankers generally embrace a strong job market: One of their two mandates from Congress is to foster maximum employment.

But when inflation is rapid, as it has been since 2021, officials worry that a hot labor market could help to keep price gains elevated.

If employers are competing for workers and paying more, they are likely to also try to charge more, the theory goes.

The stock market responded positively to the more moderate data with the Dow Jones ending the day up 450 points. This being an election year, both presidential candidates weighed in on the jobs report. Before entering a New York City courthouse for his criminal trial, Donald Trump groused, “The job numbers just came out and they’re horrible.” President Biden said in a statement from the White House that the report was more evidence that “the great American comeback continues” after he had “inherited an economy on the brink, with the worst economic crisis in a century” from Trump. https://twitter.com/ABCNewsLive/status/1786458591752315327 https://twitter.com/mmpadellan/status/1786423389147533371