Honestly, it looks like the hiring recession is over.
US average job gains in 2025: 10,000 a month
US average job gains in 2026: 114,000 a month
Job gains in the past 3 months: 188,000
Almost every industry is hiring again except tech and finance. There are a lot of encouraging signs for the labor market heading into summer. (Unfortunately, inflation is a lot worse).
JUST IN: Another strong jobs report. The US economy added 172,000 jobs in May (way better than the 88k expected) and the revisions for April and March were 93k higher. Hospitality was the top job gainer ( 70k) followed by local gov’t ( 55k)
Unemployment rate in May: 4.3% (same as April)
Job gains so far in 2026: 114,000 per month
Job gains in 2025: 10,000 per month
The bad news = wages grew 3.4% in past year. -->The lowest rate in 4 years and well below ~4% inflation.