America shakes off recession fears with bumper jobs report that sends Wall Street and 401(k)s surging

Markets reacted with joy to the April jobs report released this morning as employment trends defied expectations.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, total employment increased by 115,000; This was nearly double the market’s expectation of a 62,000 job gain.

The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.3 percent.

Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, told the Daily Mail: “Investors were worried that job cuts announcements from tech giants such as Microsoft and Meta could mean even more widespread layoffs, fears that have not been borne out by the data this time.”

This is the second month in a row that job growth has been better than expected: the March report saw a revised 185,000 job gain; this was well above the consensus view, as it was in April.

Wood told us that the stable unemployment rate makes it even more likely that the Federal Reserve will wait longer and wait for more data before changing interest rates.

The deeper trends behind the data show that as the U.S. population ages and immigration declines, the amount of job growth needed to keep the unemployment rate in check also declines; This was a point former Fed chairman Jerome Powell made earlier this year.

Revisions to employment figures released earlier this year were mixed: February’s total was revised down by 23,000 jobs to -156,000, while March’s total was revised up by 7,000 jobs to +185,000.

The unexpected jobs numbers come just a week after a separate report showed the United States posted solid economic growth in the first quarter despite the conflict in Iran and rising oil prices.

Gross domestic product (GDP), which measures all goods and services produced in the economy, grew at an annualized rate of 2 percent through March, up sharply from 0.5 percent in the fourth quarter.

U.S. economic growth in the first quarter was boosted by strong consumer spending, business investment from artificial intelligence and increased government spending after Congress finally resolved last year’s longest government shutdown on record.

While today’s numbers are extraordinary, layoffs in April rose 38 percent to 83,387, according to a separate report, as tech companies cut staff as they look to invest in artificial intelligence.

According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 26 percent of all layoffs in April were due to AI; Meta, Amazon and Coinbase announced major staff reductions.

More than 119,000 tech workers were laid off this year; April was the third month with the highest job losses since 2009.