U.S. employers added 115,000 jobs in April, the Labor Department reported Friday, a gain that easily outpaced the 65,000 economists had projected and offered the strongest signal yet that the American labor market is absorbing the economic disruption from the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The unemployment rate held at 4.3%, and average hourly earnings rose 3.6% from a year earlier. The numbers suggest an economy that, while far from booming, continues to expand despite average gasoline prices that have surged past $4.50 a gallon and tariffs that were expected to weigh more heavily on hiring.
“The labor market is not booming, but it is proving harder to break than many feared,” said Olu Sonola, an economist at Fitch Ratings.
Healthcare companies added 37,000 jobs last month and transportation and warehousing firms added 30,000. Manufacturers, however, cut 2,000 jobs in April and have shed 66,000 positions over the past year — a persistent decline that has continued despite former President Donald Trump’s protectionist trade policies designed to boost domestic factory employment.
“Businesses to some extent are viewing the conflict in Iran as temporary,” said Gus Faucher, chief economist at the financial firm PNC. “We’re seeing strong business investment, particularly around tech and AI. The economy continues to expand. We’ve weathered some shocks. The worst of the tariff impact is likely over.”
Faucher cautioned, however, that “the longer conflict in Iran lasts, the higher energy prices go, the longer they stay elevated the greater the drag on the economy.”
The April jobs report follows a bleak 2025 in which U.S. employers created just 9,700 jobs a month on average — the weakest pace outside a recession year since 2002 — as high interest rates and uncertainty over Trump’s economic policies held back hiring. The March and April figures mark the first consecutive months of job growth above 100,000 since the end of 2024. Labor Department revisions also shaved 16,000 jobs from the February and March payroll counts combined.
Wage growth remained measured, with average hourly earnings up 0.2% from March and 3.6% from April 2025. The number of people in the U.S. labor force dropped last month, pushing the labor force participation rate down to 61.8%, its lowest level since October 2021.
Among those feeling the squeeze is Michael Cramer, co-founder and CEO of online retailer Adagio Teas. He expects to freeze hiring this year at his East Rutherford, New Jersey, warehouse, which employs about 50 workers. The company has seen a slight drop in sales after the Iran war drove up gasoline prices and squeezed shoppers, particularly those in lower-income brackets.
“You only hire when you have more orders that you can fill,” Cramer said. “I don’t envision us being in that position for the remainder of the year. I think the remainder of this year is going to be fairly bumpy.”
For jobseekers, the market remains frustrating despite the headline improvement. Angela Paniccia, 33, of Queens, New York, was laid off by an educational travel company in December. “You’ll never hear back or you’ll get just a generic ‘We’re moving on with someone else’ without feedback,” she said. Many openings in her field, she added, do not pay enough to support someone living in one of the country’s most expensive cities. To help with the rent, she has been working part-time for a caterer. “I’ve always had a full-time job,” Paniccia said. “Admittedly, I’m struggling with the loss of daily routine.”
U.S. hiring has been heavily concentrated in one sector: healthcare companies, catering to an aging American population, have added 456,000 jobs over the past year. Other employers combined have cut 205,000 positions over the 12 months that ended in April. Still, the April gains extended beyond healthcare. Retailers added 22,000 jobs and construction companies added 9,000.
“America’s hiring recession appears to be over,” wrote Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. “Average job gains in 2025 were an anemic 10,000 a month. So far in 2026, the average is 76,000.”
The two-track nature of the labor market was visible at Simbe Robotics Inc., which deploys shelf-scanning robots in more than 1,000 stores worldwide. Co-founder Brad Bogolea said the company, now at about 100 employees, is eager to hire software and artificial intelligence engineers — and has its pick of candidates. Applications for robotics software engineer jobs are up 127% over the past year, he said, partly because of layoffs elsewhere in the technology industry.
Friday’s jobs data will likely keep the Federal Reserve on the sidelines, as it holds its key interest rate unchanged while evaluating the economic impact of the Iran war. Fed officials are increasingly focused on inflation, which jumped to 3.3% in March — a two-year high and far above the central bank’s target — driven higher by spikes in gasoline prices. Early this year many Fed policymakers were worried the job market was stalling and leaned toward rate cuts. The recent stabilization in hiring has undermined that case.
The April report, Faucher said, “actually makes it less likely that we see a rate cut anytime soon because the Fed can say, ‘The job market is solid. Let’s get inflation back down to 2%. This is not the time to cut rates.’”