First, it was GDP growth. Next, it was discretionary spending. And now, they’re coming for our jobs. After a banner few years for the US economy, the latest data is beginning to tell a different story. In April, the US only added 175K jobs — while the unemployment rate stayed put at 3.9%.

• Virtually all of the job growth was concentrated in education and health services (+95K), transportation and warehousing (+21K), and retail trade (+20K).
• But there were some areas that saw fewer jobs, with the information sector (-8K) leading the losses — followed by professional and business services, and mining and logging.

Horsemen of the apocalypse recession: Economic data reflected optimism and strength in the US economy during the pandemic, but now we might be heading into slower territory. Although April’s job gains were the lowest since Oct. 2023, the labor market has bounced back with strong hiring to start the first quarter. This time around, though, there’s little hope that the Fed will unwind high-interest rates anytime soon. That might make businesses hold off on hiring or expanding until things look a bit clearer.