The United States economy has added 177,000 jobs in April, topping analysts’ expectations despite economic turmoil in the early months of Donald Trump’s second term as president.The data, released on Friday by the Labor Department, suggests the job market is holding steady despite uncertainty driven by Trump’s tariff campaign.
The healthcare industry added 51,000 jobs, the highest total gain, but a sum that is consistent with the average monthly growth over the last 12 months. The transportation and warehousing sectors also increased significantly, gaining 29,000 jobs in April.
But experts say that growth in those sectors in particular could be a signal that industries are stockpiling before Trump’s high tariffs kick in, driving up the price of imports.
“People wanted to front-load and bring in more material before the tariff hike,” said Stuart Mackintosh, the executive director of the Group of Thirty, a financial think tank.
While Friday’s labour report contains positive signs, Mackintosh added that other economic indicators signal uncertainty in the market at large, and that could eventually dampen future employment statistics. Advertisement
“Companies large and small have put warnings on their forward projections of earnings going forward. That’s companies telling us, ‘We don’t know. We are uncertain. And we expect [earnings] are going to fall,’” Mackintosh said.
“I suspect that will soon trickle down to employment.”
Slowing growth
Still, Friday’s labour report showed that employment in the US remains steady desp …
