April 2026 Jobs Report: Moving, But Not Moving Along
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm payrolls rose by 115,000 in April, keeping the unemployment rate steady at 4.3%. Average hourly earnings increased 0.2% from March and are up 3.6% year‑over‑year. Healthcare added 618,000 jobs over the past year, while all other sectors collectively lost 367,000 positions. The report marks the first back‑to‑back monthly job gains in a year, but the broader labor market remains largely stagnant.
Q1 2026 Productivity and Costs Release: Productive, for Now
Nonfarm business sector labor productivity rose 2.9% year‑over‑year in Q1 2026, outpacing the 0.7% increase in hours worked and the 1.5% rise in output. Real hourly compensation grew 1.4% YoY but slipped 0.5% from the prior quarter, pushing the labor share...
March 2026 JOLTS Report: Stable, Depending on What You Do
The March 2026 JOLTS report shows job openings steady at 6.9 million, while the hires rate rose to 3.5% and quits edged up to 2%. Layoffs ticked higher to 1.2%, driven largely by a surge in the tech sector where the layoff...
Q1 2026 Employment Cost Index: Why Insurers Are Getting Larger Raises Than Workers
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Q1 2026 Employment Cost Index shows private‑sector compensation rose 3.4% year‑over‑year, while employer‑paid health‑insurance costs surged 5.7%, outpacing wages for the fifth consecutive quarter. Real wages barely improved, increasing only 0.1% after inflation. The widening gap...
Job Seeker Searches for AI Roles Have Grown 11x Since ChatGPT Released
Indeed’s hiring data show that job‑seeker searches for AI‑related positions have surged 11‑fold since ChatGPT debuted in November 2022, outpacing overall job‑search activity which has stayed near 2022 levels. The search volume spiked after major model releases such as Claude 3,...
Workers Want Training but Employers Don’t Always Deliver. Can Policy Help?
A new Hiring Lab survey across eight advanced economies finds workers view skill development as a personal priority, yet many perceive their employers place lower importance on training. Access to employer‑provided training is uneven, with degree‑holders far more likely to...
March 2026 Labor Market Update: How Women Have Closed the Other Workforce Gender Gap
The latest Indeed Labor Market Update shows that the historic male‑female employment gap has vanished, with women now holding slightly more nonfarm jobs than men as of early 2026. Over the past two years, women added roughly 298,000 jobs while...
Healthcare Hiring Keeps Signing Bonuses Alive in a Cooling Labor Market
Signing bonuses remain a notable recruiting tool despite a cooling labor market, appearing in about 3% of U.S. job postings in December 2025—down from a 5.6% peak in 2022 but still above the 2019 average of 1.8%. Wage growth in...
US Labor Market Quarterly Verticals for Q4 2025
Indeed Hiring Lab’s Q4 2025 vertical report shows mixed labor‑market signals across five U.S. sectors. Transportation and retail posted year‑over‑year declines in job openings, while wages in both categories rose faster than the aggregate market. Business‑to‑business and healthcare remained above pre‑pandemic...