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The US added 177,000 jobs in April, beating expectations and defying worries about the early impact of Donald Trump’s policies on the world’s largest economy.
Friday’s figure from the Bureau of Labor Statistics exceeded the 135,000 predicted by economists polled by Bloomberg. But it marked a fall from March’s downwardly revised figure of 185,000 posts.
The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.2 per cent.
S&P 500 futures extended gains after the data publication, trading 0.8 per cent higher ahead of the New York open.
The two-year Treasury yield jumped as investors bet that the strong jobs number would keep interest rates higher for longer.
The numbers come after mass firings of thousands of federal employees by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
Official data this week indicated the first fall in GDP for three years, but was distorted by a surge in imports ahead of Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, with domestic demand remaining strong.
Many economists anticipate that the duties will act as a drag on underlying growth in the second quarter of the year.
This is a developing story
