In April, 253,000 jobs were created, the Labor Department announced Friday, against 165,000 in March - a figure revised sharply down.

Employment remains up in business services, health care, leisure and hospitality, as well as social assistance, a statement said.

As for the unemployment rate, it fell further and fell to 3.4% (-0.1 point), as in January, its lowest level since 1969. Analysts expected 180,000 jobs to be created and an unemployment rate of 3.6%, according to several consensuses.

US President Joe Biden praised the figures in a tweet: "My program to invest in America is working."

However, a decline in job creation and an increase in the unemployment rate are expected to bring inflation under control. The latter, still very strong, had been fuelled, among other things, by the significant growth in wages linked to the lack of labour.

Wages continued to rise in April, but at a slower pace. The increase in average hourly earnings is 4.4% year-on-year, to $ 33.36, against 4.6% last month.

Job creation in the private sector alone, published Wednesday, had set the tone, defying forecasts, with 296,000 jobs created against 142,000 the previous month, according to the monthly ADP / Stanford Lab survey.

"Strength and stability"

"There is good news for everyone in this jobs report," said Nick Bunker, an economist for the job search site Indeed: "Workers will be happy that unemployment remains low (...). Employers will be delighted that labour market participation continues to grow," he said.

And according to him, even the officials of the US central bank (Fed), in the front line to fight against high inflation, will find their account, "reassured by the gradual slowdown in the pace of hiring".

It warns, however, that "turmoil in the financial market could cause turbulence", referring to the recent banking crisis, which has further tightened access to credit.

It is up to the Fed to slow economic activity, in the hope of putting an end to this price rise not seen in 40 years.

Joe Biden at the White House during a meeting on the economy on May 5, 2023 © Jim WATSON / AFP

To this end, it has been raising rates for a year. This leads banks to raise the cost of credit they offer to households and businesses, to weigh on consumption and investment, and stop price escalation.

The Fed raised rates again on Wednesday, after its monetary policy meeting, for the 10th time in a row.

"Too early to know"

And now, the question of a pause in these hikes is on the table, to avoid weighing too much on economic activity, which could plunge the United States into recession. But the strength of the job market could argue in the opposite direction.

"It is far too early to know what monetary policy to adopt" at the next meeting, in June, commented Friday on the Fox News channel the president of the Chicago Fed, Austan Goolsbee, who has this year the right to vote rotating at the Fed.

"The labor market is by far the strongest part of the economy," he stressed, but "the questions of what the credit conditions will be and what will be the fate of our regional banks ... will count a lot."

At the end of March, there were still nearly 9.6 million job vacancies, according to the Labor Department's JOLTS survey released Tuesday. It is, admittedly, steadily declining, but it remains at a very high level.

"The demand for labor still far exceeds the supply of available workers," Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at a news conference on Wednesday.

"We see some evidence of easing labor market conditions," he said, "but, overall, you have an unemployment rate at the lowest in 50 years."

However, Nancy Vanden Houten, an economist at Oxford Economics, expects that "cumulative rate hikes and tighter lending standards will weigh on the economy and labour market in the second half of the year."

© 2023 AFP