Wall Street cheered the April jobs report Friday after new federal data showed hiring far stronger than expected, easing fresh recession jitters that had been building in recent weeks.
Total employment increased by 115,000 in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists had been looking for a gain of 62,000.
The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.3%.
The upside surprise landed as investors had been watching layoff headlines out of Big Tech and bracing for a wider pullback across the economy.
“Investors worried that layoff announcements from tech giants like Microsoft and Meta could mean even more widespread layoffs ahead, their fears have not been borne out by the data this time around,” Jay Woods, chief market strategist at Freedom Capital Markets, told the Daily Mail.
It was the second month in a row that payroll growth beat expectations. March job gains were revised to 185,000, still well ahead of consensus forecasts.
The steady unemployment rate could also strengthen the Federal Reserve’s case for patience, with policymakers weighing the next move on interest rates.
Woods said the stable jobless rate makes it more likely the Fed will “hang tight” and wait for more data before making a change.
Stocks rose ahead of the opening bell as traders digested the report, which came with mixed revisions for earlier months.
February payrolls were revised down by 23,000 to -156,000. March was revised up by 7,000 to +185,000.
April’s gains were led again by health care, which added nearly 54,000 jobs. Transportation posted another strong showing, adding more than 30,000 positions.
🚨Under President Trump, the April Jobs Report SMASHES expectations
CNBC: “We are much stronger, 115,000…These are good numbers.” pic.twitter.com/068lWFPVO5
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 8, 2026
“More than half of April’s job gains came from trade, transportation and utilities,” eToro investment analyst Bret Kenwell told the Daily Mail.
“That’s a reminder that the headline number was encouraging, but not necessarily broad-based,” he said.
The report also arrives after a separate economic update showed the U.S. still growing despite higher energy prices and geopolitical uncertainty tied to the Iran conflict.
Gross domestic product rose at a 2% annualized rate in the first quarter through March, up sharply from 0.5% in the fourth quarter.
Economists pointed to strong consumer spending, a surge in business investment tied to artificial intelligence, and higher government spending after Congress ended last year’s record-long shutdown.
Still, not all signs were rosy. A separate report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas found layoffs jumped in April, rising 38% to 83,387.
Those cuts were driven heavily by technology firms as companies redirected spending toward AI.
Challenger said AI was cited in 26% of April job cuts, with Meta, Amazon and Coinbase among firms announcing major reductions. The report said more than 119,000 tech employees have been laid off so far this year, with April the third-highest month for tech job losses since 2009.
Strong hiring and a steady unemployment rate could put renewed attention on inflation pressures, particularly as higher oil prices ripple through the economy.
Some economists say the U.S. may not need as much job growth to hold unemployment steady as the population ages and immigration slows, trimming labor force growth.
Former Fed chair Jerome Powell flagged that shift earlier this year.
In March, Powell said that while there had been “zero net job creation in the private sector,” that outcome may have been “about what the economy needs in terms of dealing with very, very low -nonexistent, really – growth in the labor force, which, of course, we’ve never had in our history.”
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