The May 2025 Jobs Report & April 2025 JOLTS: The Current U.S. Employment Situation

The BLS May 2025 U.S. job numbers are out:

• 139,000 new jobs added – slightly exceeding expectations of 120,000
• 4.2% unemployment rate
• 7.2 million unemployed people

The April 2025 JOLTS, released on June 3, reported an unexpected 7.4 million job openings, along with 5.6 million hires and 5.3 million total separations. All these metrics are increases compared to March’s revised U.S. jobs data: 7.2 million job openings, 5.4 million hires, and 5.2 million total separations. FactSet economists were forecasting only 7.1 million job openings for April.

Here are additional highlights from the latest BLS Employment Situation Summary and JOLTS:

• The quits rate went back down to 2.0% and the hires rate ticked up to 3.5%, the highest it’s been since September 2024.
• After a month-over-month decrease from February to March, layoffs and discharges jumped back up to 1.8 million in April.
• Average hourly earnings rose by $0.15 (0.4%) to $36.24.
• Jobs added in March and April were revised down by a combined 95,000.

What industries are hiring now? Employment increased substantially in healthcare and social assistance, leisure and hospitality, and financial activities. Federal government jobs decreased by 22,000 and professional and business services jobs decreased by 18,000.

If the May 2025 jobs report has you feeling cautiously optimistic about hiring, you’re not alone.

“The steady hiring is an indication that businesses are still seeing enough demand for goods and services that they will fill open roles and add new ones, even if they’re no longer expanding as quickly as they had over the past few years,” said Lydia DePillis of the New York Times.

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