CNN’s Egan on Jobs Report: ‘The U.S. Economy Adding 115,000 Jobs in April — That’s Almost Twice as Much as the Consensus from Economists’

EXCERPT:

EGAN: "This was a big beat for the job market. Look at this. So, the U.S. economy adding 115,000 jobs in April. That’s almost twice as much as the consensus from economists. Again, it is a slowdown from March, which was actually revised slightly higher, but this was better than expected. Also, February, February was revised even lower. It was a negative number previously, it's an even bigger negative. You see that’s that bar right there going straight down. But the fact that it’s gone up two months in a row, that's gonna really, I think, increase the confidence that perhaps this job market has stabilized after a pretty weak 2025. Now, let’s look at the unemployment rate. The expectation was that it would stay at 4.3 percent. It did stay at 4.3 percent. This is also reassuring because it shows that, after this significant increase in the unemployment rate in 2023, '24, '25, again, it has stabilized, and that is a good side. When we look at the various industries, healthcare, it continues to be a major source of demand for workers in the U.S. economy. That reflects this aging economy, this aging workforce as well. 37,000 jobs added there. Leisure and hospitality — that’s bars, restaurants, hotels — adding 14,000. That’s encouraging because if people are really pulling back because of high energy prices, that’s where you might see it first. It's not showing up, at least not yet.”