U.S. Saw Tepid Job Growth in April Following ‘Liberation Day’

The month of April was tough on investors who sold off trillions in stocks as President Donald Trump’s tariff war kicked off in earnest, but the job market held steady to some extent.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its findings Friday morning, showing that total nonfarm payroll employment added 177,000 jobs in April, even after another month of heavy layoffs for government workers.

While the unemployment rate remained unchanged, the figure was still a decline from March, which saw 228,000 new hires across the country, a figure that J.P. Morgan Chase called “robust.” Unemployment rose one-tenth of 1 percentage point in March, however, to 4.2 percent from the 4.1 percent reported in February.

Trump reacted to the jobs report as proof that Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell should lower interest rates, tying the report to inflation.

“Consumers have been waiting for years to see pricing come down. NO INFLATION, THE FED SHOULD LOWER ITS RATE!!!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

For additional comparison, 256,000 jobs were added in December 2024, former President Joe Biden’s last full month in office, and unemployment decreased from 4.2 to 4.1 percent.

At the time, acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su said the figure was above market expectations and the three-month average of payroll employment gains was 170,000, which seemed to adjust for temporary hirings for the holiday season.

How this reflects on the real estate industry is a give-and-take scenario, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

“Regardless of what may be happening on Wall Street, where half of the stock market valuations are held by the top 1 percent of the population, Main Street America continues to move forward,” NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a statement. “Homeowners across the country are also faring well as housing equity continues to reach new record highs. The manufacturing sector, however, stalled in the latest month with no net job additions. The retail sector reduced staffing levels.”

Despite the retail sector clearly taking action as tariffs increase import costs, Yun saw the overall picture as somewhat stable.

“Jobs were also created in construction, professional business services, and health care sectors,” Yun said. “Moreover, the overall job gains indicate increased occupancy demand for apartment and commercial buildings. Therefore, nearly 10,000 jobs were added to the real estate sector, primarily related to rental and leasing activity. The economy is progressing despite all the trade and tariff disruptions.”

Recent months also hardly compare to some of the gains seen earlier in the last five years, in which there were periods in 2021 and 2022 where more than 800,000 jobs were added to the economy, according to a chart from the New York Times.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.