U.S. Added Stronger Than Expected 177K Jobs in April

In the first look at the employment picture since last month’s Liberation Day tariff announcements sent markets tumbling and supply chain professionals into never-imagined areas of uncertainty, the U.S. jobs market for the time being remained reasonably strong.

The U.S. added 177,000 jobs in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Nonfarm Payrolls Report. That topped analyst estimates for 130,000 and March’s 185,000 (revised from an originally reported 228,000).

The unemployment rate for April was 4.2% versus 4.2% forecast and March’s 4.2%.

In rally mode for the last two weeks since the initial panic over the tariffs, the price of bitcoin (BTC) was modestly lower at $96,700 in the minutes following the report. Also in rally mode since that initial panic, U.S. stock futures added to gains after the news, with the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 each higher by 0.7%

This morning’s report will likely cool the idea of imminent Federal Reserve rate cuts. While market participants had written off the idea of any Fed move in May, they had priced in about a 60% chance of rate cut in June and more than a 90% chance of one or more rate cuts by the July central bank meeting, according to CME FedWatch.

The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rose four basis points to 4.27% on the better than expected numbers.

Checking other report data, average hourly earnings were up 0.2% in April, shy of forecasts for 0.3% and March’s 0.3%. On a year-over-year basis, average hourly earnings rose 3.8% versus 3.9% expected and 3.8% in March.