US employers added 253,000 jobs in April showing jobs market remains robust

theguardian.com:

US employers added 253,000 jobs in April, a sign that resilient jobs market remains robust even after a year of Federal Reserve interest rate rises.

Labor market growth has been slowing over the last few months, from 472,000 jobs in January to a revised 165,000 in March. April broke that downward trend in growth, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday.

The unemployment fell slightly increased to 3.4%, 0.1% decrease compared to March.

Economists had expected the US to add 180,000 jobs over the month. Recent data had pointed to signs that jobs growth has been slowing. The monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, known as Jolt, for March was released by the BLS earlier this week and showed job openings were at their lowest level since April 2021, falling for a third month straight.

Layoffs increased to 1.8m, 248,000 more compared to last month and the highest number since December 2020. The construction industry saw the highest number of layoffs as the housing market has cooled with the rise of interest rates.

April’s job figures were released just two days after the Fed announced its 10th interest rate hike in just over a year, raising rates by a quarter-point to 5% to 5.25%, the highest rate in 16 years.

The new jobs report further complicates the economic outlook for Fed officials, who on Wednesday had suggested they may stop interest rate rises in the near future as they see the effects play out in the economy.

“There are some signs that supply and demand in the labor market are coming back into balance,” Fed chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference on Wednesday. He said the “economy is likely to face further headwinds from tighter credit conditions”, meaning the full effects of the interest-rate