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The U.S. economy added 253,000 jobs in April, surpassing analyst forecasts of 180,000 new jobs, according to Labor Department data released Friday.
The unemployment rate remained historically low at 3.4 percent, down from 3.5 percent the previous month.
The jobs report reveals that the economy is slowing, but the labor market remains surprisingly robust.
The unemployment rate for Black Americans dipped slightly to 4.7 percent, a record low. That’s a huge recovery from the onset of the pandemic, when the Black unemployment rate spiked to 16.8 percent in May 2020.
Wage gains also came in slightly stronger than expected.
