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While the U.S. added more jobs than expected last month, other labor market indicators are not so ... More optimistic.

As part of my job, I spend quite a bit of time each week speaking with job-seekers and perusing job boards to see who is hiring and for what positions. In the last month, one thing has been—at least anecdotally—clear: More job postings are popping up.

Friday’s job numbers confirmed this trend. The U.S. added 177,000 new jobs in April, higher than analysts’ expectations, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Wages also rose 3.8% year-over-year to a record average of $36.06 an hour for nonfarm employees.

But economists are warning against too much optimism from Friday’s report.

For one, the private sector added only 62,000 jobs in April, less than half of what analysts expected as employers held tight in the face of the expected impact from tariffs, marking the slowest job growth in the sector since July 2024. “Unease is the word of the day,” Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP said in the company’s national employment report.

Then there are the layoff numbers. While unemployment remained flat........

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