BLS Jobs: +115K, Double Expectations

Friday, May 8th, 2026

Much as we saw in Wednesday’s private-sector payrolls from ADP (ADP), this morning’s Employment Situation report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) was better than expected: +115K new jobs were filled in April, more than double the +55K consensus estimate. The Unemployment Rate remained steady at +4.3%.

This makes three of the past four months with positive jobs growth. Not only that, but all three of those months — +160K in January, and upwardly revised +185K for March and now +115K — were up by triple digits. (February was revised -23K lower, to -156K — the deepest month of negative jobs growth since the Covid pandemic.) Four of the previous eight months showed negative jobs growth on BLS; for ADP it was four straight months in early 2025. We’re clearly off the lows in the U.S. labor market.

Also as we saw in ADP’s report, Healthcare led the way in jobs growth by industry: +37K. This is followed by Transportation/Warehousing jobs at +30K and Retail Trade, +22K. Information jobs shed -13K (negative for the 16th straight week: is this AI related, or is it too early to tell?), the Federal government -9K and Manufacturing -2K. In general, it’s lower-paying jobs leading the way currently; we see this change when Professional/Business Services and Financials are among the sector leaders.

Wage growth tamed somewhat last month: +0.2% from the expected +0.3% and in-line with the prior month. Year over year, +3.6% missed estimates by 20 basis points (bps), but was up 10 bps month over month. The Average Workweek ticked up slightly to 34.3 hours, but Labor Force Participation languished down near 50-year lows to 61.8%. U-6 (aka “real unemployment”) ratcheted up +20 bps to +8.2%, and half a point higher than the +7.7% we saw last July.

In all, we’re seeing what outgoing Fed Chair Jerome Powell has been seeing: the domestic labor market has been holding its own. Perhaps we could stand a little higher quality within that jobs growth, but compared to where we had been — and where many feared we were headed — the market has to feel placated overall.

Pre-market futures, which had already been in the green ahead of this report, boosted further on the news. We shortly thereafter retreated from early highs, but the Dow is +119 points at this hour, the S&P 500 +32 points, the Nasdaq +210 and the small-cap Russell +13 points.
 

Earnings Results at a Glance

By sheer volume of the number of companies reporting, this is the busiest week of Q1 earnings season (so far — next week will bring over a thousand quarterly posts, as well). We’ve exhausted most of the marquee names, with NVIDIA NVDA the final “Mag 7” company to report in a couple weeks, but we have plenty of stories being told ahead of today’s opening bell:

Wendy’s WEN beat bottom-line estimates by +20% to +$0.12 per share (though still well below the +$0.20 per share reported in the year-ago quarter). This was good enough to se the stock gain nearly +4% at this hour, still digging out from its -16.5% hole, year to date. For more on WEN’s earnings, click here.

Brookfield Asset Management BAM outpaced estimates by a solid penny to +$0.43 per share this morning, and pre-market shares swung to a positive +1% as a result. The alt-energy infrastructure investment company is still down more than -5% year to date. 

Construction Partners ROAD swung to a big positive earnings surprise this morning: +$0.18 per share from an expected negative print of -$0.05, for an impressive +460% earnings surprise. The infrastructure company also raised guidance, and shares are up +6.5% so far this morning.

Madison Square Garden MSGS, however, despite the New York Knicks’ success in the NBA so far this year, posted a big miss: -$0.78 per share versus a positive +$0.66 anticipated. Shares are flat on the news, but the -218% negative surprise is something to be improved upon. The stock is +28.5% year to date.

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