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.