OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
UPDATE: 7:19 AM – Saturday, May 9, 2026 – President Donald Trump praised the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) jobs report, which revealed that the U.S. economy added 115,000 jobs in April, ahead of Mother’s Day weekend.
“Happy Mother’s Day weekend to all, especially to the 115 THOUSAND AMERICANS who found jobs in the month of April alone!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday evening. “As usual, over 90 percent of Bloomberg Economists (nearly all of whom have a “Terminal” case of TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME!) underestimated the strength of the Trump Economy. Despite the best efforts of Jerome ‘Too Late and Won’t Leave’ Powell, and the America Hating Democrat Party, more Americans are working today than ever before.”
He added, “Happy Mother’s Day and, know that, we are MAKING AMERICA WEALTHY AND SAFE AGAIN!”
The president included a bar graph that showed the difference between expected and actual job growth in April. Economists had projected employment gains to sit between 62,000 and 67,000, according to the Labor Department.
9:44 AM – Friday, May 8, 2026 – The U.S. economy added 115,000 jobs in April, nearly doubling the London Stock Exchange’s (LSEG) prediction of a gain of 62,000 jobs, with a 4.3% unemployment rate, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revealed.
On Friday, the BLS released its April jobs report, stating that the unemployment rate remained the same from March. Both the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed people, 7.4 million, have “changed little over the year.”
The gains were mainly in health care, transportation, warehousing and certain areas of retail trade.
Health care added 37,000 jobs, consistent with the average monthly gain of 32,000 in this sector over the past year. About 15,000 of these were in nursing and residential care facilities, with the other 11,000 in home health care services.
Transportation and warehousing increased by 30,000 last month, though warehousing reached its peak employment in February, 2025.
Meanwhile, retail employment added 22,000 opportunities in April, though this sector’s gains were offset by a loss of about 7,000 jobs in department stores and about 2,000 in electronics and appliance retailers.
Social assistance jobs grew by about 17,000.
However, federal government employment declined by 9,000, continuing its trend since it reached its peak in October 2024. Overall, federal government employment is down by 348,000, or 11.5%.
Information careers continued a downward trend by about 13,000 in April, with the sector down 11% from its peak in November 2022.
When immigration was at higher levels from 2021 through 2024, the economy needed to add more than 100,000 jobs each month to keep pace with the growth of the workforce. Economists now estimate this “break-even” number to be as low as zero, however. In addition to a slowing of immigration, retirement also lowers this number. As baby boomers leave work, younger, smaller generations may be slower to replace them.
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