U.S. payroll growth totals 177,000 in April, topping expectations

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32. 'The Golden Age is here': US Labor Secy. reacts to April jobs data, 5/2/25

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published Friday morning that the labor market saw an addition of 177,000 jobs in the month of April, well above original forecasts for 138,000 in non-farm payroll growth. The April jobs report was an example of resiliency for the US economy following President Trump's "Liberation Day" reciprocal tariffs enacted on April 2.

The United States Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer sits down with Yahoo Finance senior Washington correspondent Jennifer Schonberger to talk more about the job growth seen so far under the Trump administration and what other Cabinet officials are projecting for labor momentum amid reshoring plans and trade negotiations.

. . .

Lori Chavez-DeRemer: "Well, we blew it out of the water last month. So this, this has not surprised me. This is exactly what I knew the president was going to do, but 40,000 more jobs, again, exceeded expectations. So, uh, this is not a wait and see anymore. The golden age is here. This is what we're experiencing. This is what the president wanted when he put this team together. "

More: https://finance.yahoo.com/video/golden-age-us-labor-secy-141224447.html

Oh FFS. First, they beat some LOW expectations. I so hate the financial media and pundits making everything about what was expected (especially when not mentioning that the expectations were low), as opposed to what actually was.

Second of all, with the downward revision of the prior 2 months -- 58,000 jobs combined -- the actual gain in jobs compared to the previous jobs report -- the April 4 jobs report for March -- was 119k jobs, below the expectation of a gain of 138k jobs. Post #10 spells that out. The short form is:

177k increase from March to April minus 58k downward revision of February and March combined = 119k

Short form #2:

The April 4 report's total nonfarm payroll employment: 159,398k
This (May 2 report's) total nonfarm payroll employment: 159,517k
159,517k - 159,398k = 119k, matches the above.
Links are in Post #10

Simply stated, both the expected and actual job growth were feeble.

The rest of the transcript continues with more nauseum.