Hiring slows in May but no sign of collapse yet

(NewsNation) — Friday's jobs report echoed a now-familiar theme: The labor market is cooling — slowly but steadily.

U.S. employers added a solid 139,000 jobs last month despite uncertainty over President Trump's on-again-off-again tariffs, new Labor Department data shows. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2%.

Harvard economist Jason Furman wrote that it was "a boring jobs report, in a good way," noting that it's "hard to see any adverse impact of tariffs on real economy."

Hiring was slower in May compared to April's revised total of 147,000, but businesses are still adding workers. Increasingly, though, it depends on the sector.

"If you’re a doctor or a nurse or bartender, you’re probably feeling better in this environment than a software engineer or federal employee," Cory Stahle