Argus

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May 08, 2026

Market Outlook

Bullish

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Short

Summary

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Employment Situation for April. The U.S. added 115,000 non-farm jobs, helped by strength in the stalwart Healthcare sector. There were also notable increases in retail trade and in transportation and warehousing. Our forecast was for an increase of 125,000 new jobs in April, while the consensus was 62,000. The results reduced the three-month average to 48,000 from 68,000 before the report, as strong payrolls in January rolled out of the calculation. March's payrolls were revised higher by 7,000 to 185,000 and February was reduced by 23,000 to a loss of 156,000. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.3%, which matched our estimate and consensus. Average hourly earnings increased $0.06 month to month and are 3.6% higher year over year. The average workweek rose by 0.1 hour to 34.3 hours. Employment showed little change in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction; construction; manufacturing; wholesale trade; financial activities; professional and business services; leisure and hospitality; and other services. Employment declined in information; telecommunications; motion picture and sound recording; and in computing infrastructure providers, data processing, web hosting, and related services. Specifically, information employment is down by 11.0% since its peak in November 2022. The manufacturing sector lost 2,000 jobs. Federal government employment fell by 9,000 in April and h

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