NY.- Employers added 253,000 jobs in April, the Labor Department reported Friday, in a reversal of the cooling trend that had marked the first quarter and was expected to continue.
The unemployment rate was 3.4 percent, down from 3.5 percent in March, and equaling the January level, which was the lowest since 1969.
Higher-than-expected job creation complicates the Fed’s potential shift toward a pause in interest rate hikes. Chairman Jerome H. Powell said on Wednesday that the central bank could continue raising rates if new data showed the economy was not slowing enough to keep prices low.
It is also an indication that the failure of three banks and the consequent reduction in lending, which is expected to hit smaller companies especially hard, has not yet slowed down job creation.
“All these things tell us that it is not a difficult stop; it is creating a headwind, but not a debilitating headwind,” said Carl Riccadonna, chief US economist at BNP Paribas. “A gradual recession is happening, but it sure is stubborn and persistent on trend”
The downward revisions of the previous two months significantly altered the spring employment outlook, subtracting a total of 149,000 jobs. That brings the three-month average to 222,000 jobs, a clear slowdown from the 400,000 added on average in 2022.
