US labor market shows resilience; risks mounting from trade policy

 U.S. job growth slowed marginally in April and employers continued to hoard workers, but the outlook for the labor market is increasingly darkening as President Donald Trump’s protectionist trade policy heightens economic uncertainty.

The Labor Department’s closely watched employment report published on Friday, which also showed the unemployment rate held steady at 4.2% last month, helped to assuage fears that the economy was close to recession after gross domestic product contracted in the first quarter amid a tariff-induced flood of imports. Nonetheless, it is too early for the labor market to show the impact of Trump’s on-and-off again tariff policy.