{"id":4630,"date":"2023-05-05T12:16:56","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T16:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/markets\/jobs-growth-is-robust-but-april-report-also-showed-hints-of-a-slowdown\/"},"modified":"2023-05-05T12:16:57","modified_gmt":"2023-05-05T16:16:57","slug":"jobs-growth-is-robust-but-april-report-also-showed-hints-of-a-slowdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630","title":{"rendered":"Jobs Growth Is Robust, But April Report Also Showed Hints of a Slowdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Banks are in turmoil, economic uncertainty is growing, and the Federal Reserve has tightened monetary policy at the most aggressive pace in decades. And still, the U.S. labor market continues to grow \u2014 for now, at least. <\/p>\n

Employers added 253,000 jobs in April, the Labor Department reported on Friday, marking a surprise jump up from March\u2019s revised gain of 165,000. The unemployment rate ticked down to 3.4%, matching its lowest level in more than a half-century.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Strength was evident across the board: The share of Americans considered to be in their prime working years who are either working or looking for a job climbed to its highest level since early 2008, just before the financial crisis hit. The unemployment rate among Black workers hit its lowest level ever. And a broad range of industries, from healthcare and business services to leisure and hospitality, saw growth over the month.<\/p>\n

That remarkable strength in the face of significant economic and financial headwinds underscores just how resilient the current labor market is, even as the broader economy slows. As the Federal Reserve works to rein in inflation, the labor market\u2019s confounding durability has given central-bank officials space so far to keep interest rates in restrictive territory without having to worry about widespread layoffs or acute economic pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those fearing the downstream consequences of higher interest rates, today\u2019s jobs data was a Mayday call: Interest rate relief is not on the horizon,\u201d wrote Aaron Terrazas, chief economist with Glassdoor.<\/p>\n

While the April report was an overwhelmingly positive one, there were some clues buried within it that suggested a labor market slowdown may still be on the way.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most significantly, the report included notable downward revisions for the number of jobs added in both February and March, suggesting that the labor market had been cooling more significantly than was initially understood. Headline figures for those two months were revised down by a collective 149,000 jobs, bringing the three-month average of job growth for the period ending in April to 222,000 jobs monthly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While still strong, that growth rate marks a significant step down from where the three-month average pace stood before April\u2019s data were released, at 345,000 jobs added per month. The cooling may be far more gradual than anyone expected, but the downward trend is evident.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the report showed a decline in the temporary-help services sector, which lost 23,000 jobs over the month. The category is sometimes considered a leading indicator for the labor market, because employers tend to shed temporary employees before moving on to broader job cuts.<\/p>\n

Beyond the data released Friday, other recent reports have shown unemployment claims continuing to rise and job openings, a proxy for labor demand, falling significantly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The upshot is that the labor market, while still strong, also continues to show signs of weakness. And so far, it is moving in a direction the Federal Reserve has long wanted to see: cooling slightly without collapsing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The question now is how long the labor market will be able to continue on that slow downward trend, especially if the central bank views the persistent strength in job growth as a reason to tighten interest rates even further or at least keep them at a restrictive level.\u00a0<\/p>\n

April\u2019s data on wage growth alone could nudge the Fed toward continued tightening in June: Average hourly earnings climbed 0.5% over the month, up from March\u2019s 0.3% pace, and accelerated to a 4.4% annual rate, up from 4.2%. That increase suggests that any relief in inflation\u2014particularly in the key services categories where price growth has been highest\u2014will remain elusive in the near-term, although some economists caution that wage data can be noisy month to month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe takeaway is simple for the Fed: Unemployment is extremely low and wage growth is strong, so they will keep the foot on the brake for the time being,\u201d says Bill Adams, chief economist with Comerica Bank.<\/p>\n

Another jobs report and plenty of inflation data will be released before the Fed\u2019s next meeting. But as of late Friday morning, investors were overwhelmingly pricing in the expectation that officials would hold rates steady in June, the CME FedWatch tool showed.<\/p>\n

Eventually, however, economists expect the central bank\u2019s monetary-policy tightening efforts to take hold fully. \u201cWith each passing month, the tailwinds from efforts to re-staff post-lockdowns are getting weaker, while the hiring headwinds from tighter monetary policy are getting stronger,\u201d
\n Wells Fargo
\n economists Sarah House and Michael Pugliese wrote in a client note titled \u201cThe Little Jobs Market That Could.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe jobs market remains on solid ground,\u201d they added, \u201cbut cracks are emerging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Write to Megan Cassella at megan.cassella@dowjones.com<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Banks are in turmoil, economic uncertainty is growing, and the Federal Reserve has tightened monetary policy at the most aggressive pace in decades. And still, the U.S. labor market continues to grow \u2014 for now, at least. Employers added 253,000 jobs in April, the Labor Department reported on Friday, marking a surprise jump up from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[241],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-4630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-markets","tag-featured","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"yoast_head":"\nJobs Growth Is Robust, But April Report Also Showed Hints of a Slowdown | iFintechWorld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Banks are in turmoil, economic uncertainty is growing, and the Federal Reserve has tightened monetary policy at the most aggressive pace in decades. And\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jobs Growth Is Robust, But April Report Also Showed Hints of a Slowdown | iFintechWorld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Banks are in turmoil, economic uncertainty is growing, and the Federal Reserve has tightened monetary policy at the most aggressive pace in decades. And\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"iFintechWorld\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-05T16:16:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-05T16:16:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/1683303417_social.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61\"},\"headline\":\"Jobs Growth Is Robust, But April Report Also Showed Hints of a Slowdown\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-05T16:16:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-05T16:16:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630\"},\"wordCount\":791,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Featured\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Markets\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630\",\"name\":\"Jobs Growth Is Robust, But April Report Also Showed Hints of a Slowdown | iFintechWorld\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-05T16:16:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-05T16:16:57+00:00\",\"description\":\"Banks are in turmoil, economic uncertainty is growing, and the Federal Reserve has tightened monetary policy at the most aggressive pace in decades. And\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Jobs Growth Is Robust, But April Report Also Showed Hints of a Slowdown\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\",\"name\":\"Repay Down\",\"description\":\"Latest Personal Finance News, Tips and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Repay Down\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png\",\"width\":558,\"height\":90,\"caption\":\"Repay Down\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61\",\"name\":\"News Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"News Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jobs Growth Is Robust, But April Report Also Showed Hints of a Slowdown | iFintechWorld","description":"Banks are in turmoil, economic uncertainty is growing, and the Federal Reserve has tightened monetary policy at the most aggressive pace in decades. And","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jobs Growth Is Robust, But April Report Also Showed Hints of a Slowdown | iFintechWorld","og_description":"Banks are in turmoil, economic uncertainty is growing, and the Federal Reserve has tightened monetary policy at the most aggressive pace in decades. And","og_url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630","og_site_name":"iFintechWorld","article_published_time":"2023-05-05T16:16:56+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-05-05T16:16:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":640,"url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/1683303417_social.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"News Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News Room","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630"},"author":{"name":"News Room","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61"},"headline":"Jobs Growth Is Robust, But April Report Also Showed Hints of a Slowdown","datePublished":"2023-05-05T16:16:56+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-05T16:16:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630"},"wordCount":791,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["Featured"],"articleSection":["Markets"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630","name":"Jobs Growth Is Robust, But April Report Also Showed Hints of a Slowdown | iFintechWorld","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-05-05T16:16:56+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-05T16:16:57+00:00","description":"Banks are in turmoil, economic uncertainty is growing, and the Federal Reserve has tightened monetary policy at the most aggressive pace in decades. And","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=4630#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jobs Growth Is Robust, But April Report Also Showed Hints of a Slowdown"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/","name":"Repay Down","description":"Latest Personal Finance News, Tips and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#organization","name":"Repay Down","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/rep-logo-dark.png","width":558,"height":90,"caption":"Repay Down"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6224724fd4116361255b179dc5c70b61","name":"News Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/avatar_user_1_1682606986-96x96.png","caption":"News Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/ifintechworld.com"],"url":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?author=1"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4632,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630\/revisions\/4632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}