Employment Situation

April 2025

Released May 02, 2025

From March 2025 to April 2025:

• Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 177K.
  • Private sector payroll employment increased by 167K.
  • Government payroll employment increased by 10K.
• The headline unemployment rate (U-3) remained unchanged at 4.2 percent.
  • The broadest measure of unemployment (U-6, which adds underemployment to unemployment), decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 7.8 percent.
• The labor force participation rate (LFPR) increased by 0.1 percentage points to 62.6 percent.

From March 2025 to April 2025:

• The best performing sectors were Private Education and Health Services (+70K) and Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (+32K).
• The worst performing sectors were Federal Government (-9K) and Retail Trade (-1.8K).

From April 2024 to April 2025:

• The best performing sectors were Private Education and Health Services (+894K) and Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (+250K).
• The worst performing sectors were Manufacturing (-82K) and Professional and Business Services (-31K).

From April 2024 to April 2025:

• For all employees on private nonfarm payrolls:
  • Average nominal weekly earnings increased by 4.07 percent.
  • Average nominal hourly earnings increased by 3.77 percent.
• For production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls:
  • Average nominal weekly earnings increased by 4.36 percent.
  • Average nominal hourly earnings increased by 4.05 percent.

Table 1. Labor Indicators

	Apr 2025	Mar 2025	M/M change	Apr 2024	Y/Y change
Payroll jobs
Nonfarm	159.517M	159.340M	177K	157.635M	1.882M
Private	135.905M	135.738M	167K	134.345M	1.560M
Unemployment
Official rate (U-3)	4.2%	4.2%	0.0pp	3.9%	0.3pp
Broader rate (U-6)	7.8%	7.9%	-0.1pp	7.4%	0.4pp
Labor force participation rate
16 years and over	62.6%	62.5%	0.1pp	62.7%	-0.1pp
Prime age (25-54 years)	83.6%	83.3%	0.3pp	83.5%	0.1pp
Employment-to-Population Ratio	60.0%	59.9%	0.1pp	60.2%	-0.2pp

Table 2. Earnings Indicators

	Apr 2025	Mar 2025	M/M change	Apr 2024	Y/Y change
Production and non-supervisory
Hourly earnings	$31.06	$30.96	0.32%	$29.85	4.05%
Weekly earnings	$1,049.83	$1,046.45	0.32%	$1,005.95	4.36%
All employees
Hourly earnings	$36.06	$36.00	0.17%	$34.75	3.77%
Weekly earnings	$1,236.86	$1,234.80	0.17%	$1,188.45	4.07%

Table 3. Revisions

	1st	2nd	3rd	Net revision
Nonfarm jobs added
March 2025	228K	185K		-43K
February 2025	151K	117K	102K	-49K
January 2025	143K	125K	111K	-32K

Table 4. Comparison to ADP Estimate

	BLS	ADP	Difference
Private nonfarm jobs added	167K	62K	105K

Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey

March 2025

Released April 29, 2025

Job Openings: The total number of nonfarm job openings decreased by 288K to 7.19 million, and the rate decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 4.3 percent.

• The best performing sectors were other services (+20K) and manufacturing (+4K).
• The worst performing sectors were trade, transportation, and utilities (-62K) and private education and health services (-61K).

Hires: The total number of nonfarm hires increased by 41K to 5.41 million, and the rate remained unchanged at 3.4 percent.

• The best performing sectors were leisure and hospitality (+48K) and private education and health services (+36K).
• The worst performing sectors were construction (-45K) and professional and business services (-43K).

Separations: The total number of nonfarm separations decreased by 179K to 5.14 million, and the rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 3.2 percent.

• Quits increased by 82K to 3.33 million, and the rate increased by 0.1 percentage points to 2.1 percent.
• Layoffs and discharges decreased by 222K to 1.56 million, and the rate decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 1 percent.
• Other separations decreased by 39K to 247K, and the rate remained unchanged at 0.2 percent.

Table 5. JOLTS Level Indicators

	Mar 2025	Feb 2025	M/M change	Mar 2024	Y/Y change
Job openings level
Nonfarm	7.192M	7.480M	-288K	8.093M	-901K
Private	6.359M	6.588M	-229K	7.101M	-742K
Hire level
Nonfarm	5.411M	5.370M	41K	5.472M	-61K
Private	5.050M	5.020M	30K	5.091M	-41K
Separation level
Nonfarm	5.137M	5.316M	-179K	5.268M	-131K
Private	4.792M	4.966M	-174K	4.950M	-158K

Table 6. JOLTS Rate Indicators

	Mar 2025	Feb 2025	M/M change	Mar 2024	Y/Y change
Job openings rate
Nonfarm	4.3%	4.5%	-0.2pp	4.9%	-0.6pp
Private	4.5%	4.6%	-0.1pp	5.0%	-0.5pp
Hire rate
Nonfarm	3.4%	3.4%	0.0pp	3.5%	-0.1pp
Private	3.7%	3.7%	0.0pp	3.8%	-0.1pp
Separation rate
Nonfarm	3.2%	3.3%	-0.1pp	3.3%	-0.1pp
Private	3.5%	3.7%	-0.2pp	3.7%	-0.2pp

Upcoming releases

Date	Time	Release	Data source
May 06	08:30 AM	Monthly Trade Update, March 2025	Bureau of Economic Analysis
May 07	10:00 AM	Monthly Debt Update, May 2025	U.S. Treasury
May 13	08:30 AM	Monthly Inflation Update, April 2025	Bureau of Labor Statistics
May 13	10:00 AM	Monthly Fiscal Update, April 2025	U.S. Treasury
May 21	10:00 AM	State Employment Update, April 2025	Bureau of Labor Statistics
May 29	08:30 AM	Monthly GDP Update, Q1 2025 Second Estimate	Bureau of Economic Analysis
May 30	08:30 AM	Monthly Expenditures Update, April 2025	Bureau of Economic Analysis

Notes

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics; ADP National Employment Report; JEC Republicans calculations

“pp” = percentage points; “M/M” = month over month; “Y/Y” = year over year

Consistent with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, monthly figures are seasonally adjusted. Discrepancy in change figures is possible due to rounding.