Hiring held up last month — and other happenings in the world of work

Welcome back to The Work Shift, a weekly newsletter that keeps you informed about the economy, labor market and evolving world of work through data-driven insights, brought to you by LinkedIn News Editor Taylor Borden. Click subscribe to be notified of future editions — and check out previous editions here.

Catch up on headlines from the last 7 days.

• Hiring held up last month, with the economy adding more jobs than expected in April. This suggests the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates steady later this week. Read more about this below.

• Job openings dipped last month. New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed March job openings fell to 7.19 million from February's revised 7.48 million, "below all estimates" in Bloomberg's survey of economists. ✏️Jake Perez

• The economy shrank by an annualized 0.3% in the first three months of the year, per a new report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That interrupts a nearly three-year trend of "solid growth" with the first decrease since 2022, raising fears of a recession. Driving the decline: imports surged by more than 40% in a rush to beat tariffs. ✏️Emma W. Thorne

• Jobless claims by new and continuing applications are ramping up in the latest sign of labor market stress. While first-time filings for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, to 241,000, continuing claims have reached the highest level in more than three years. ✏️Cate Chapman

• Sellers are out of step with homebuyers. New data from Redfin shows that the average U.S. home seller is asking for roughly 9% over the final sale price. The last time list prices and sale prices were this mismatched was during the pandemic homebuying frenzy. Many sellers are reluctant to budge and reduce costs, thanks to ongoing economic uncertainty and rising mortgage rates. ✏️Megan McDonough

• Just over two out of 10 employees in the global workforce report feeling engaged at work — the lowest rate in years — according to Gallup. Researchers estimate this level of disconnect costs the global economy hundreds of billions of dollars a year in productivity losses. ✏️Rachel Cromidas

Take a closer look at recent trending topics — and engage with meaningful conversations happening on LinkedIn.

Hiring held up in April

• The Labor Department's first jobs report since tariffs took effect landed last week and showed that the U.S. economy added 177,000 jobs in April. This is down from a revised 185,000 jobs in March, according to the Labor Department, but still represents more jobs than economists anticipated. The unemployment rate also remained steady at 4.2%.

• "With the solid report, the Federal Reserve should have enough confidence in the health of the labor market, for now," David Kelly, chief global strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, shared. "This should allow it to hold rates steady at its next meeting." The Federal Open Market Committee next meets to set interest rates on Wednesday. "However, there are some potential storm clouds forming on the horizon," Kelly continued. He said aggregate economic data points, including falling job openings, climbing jobless claims and a negative GDP reading for the first quarter, "point to a softening economy that is only just beginning to feel the effects of tariffs." 

• Gregory Daco, EY's chief economist, agreed: "We fear, unfortunately, that the near perfect jobs report in April shows the economy as it could have been in the absence of a tariff shock, and it may mislead policymakers into believing the economy is more resilient than it truly is." 

Career pessimism is growing

• Even though hiring is still holding steady, workers of all ages are losing confidence in their job security, according to LinkedIn's latest Workforce Confidence survey. In fact, confidence to find or hold a job reached a new low in April, dropping to +40 on a scale of -100 to +100. That's even lower than the spring of 2020, when the pandemic drove widespread layoffs and hiring slowdown.

• The youngest members of the workforce are feeling the most pessimistic: job confidence for Gen Z is now at +24, down by 7 points year-over-year. Millennials are next-most pessimistic about finding or holding a job right now, with a score of +40, followed by Gen Xers at +42 and baby boomers at +44. All have seen their job confidence drop since last year, in the wake of industry-spanning technological disruptions and predictions that the U.S. is facing an economic downturn.

• Career coach Gina Riley recommended those losing confidence in their job prospects focus on standing out to employers by developing a "unique value proposition." Understanding what makes you an asset helps you answer "tell me about yourself" and "how can you solve our biggest problems" in job interviews, she shared. She also shared that leveraging AI is essential in an era of rapid technological advancement — don't rely on it, but if executives are prioritizing it, you should be, too, she commented.

Execs are ramping up AI skills

• The vast majority of global executives are all in on artificial intelligence, with 88% saying the acceleration of AI adoption at their companies is a top priority this year. And they're leading by example: LinkedIn data shows nearly 3x more global C-suite members have added AI literacy skills to their profile compared with two years ago.

• What's more? Execs are 1.2x more likely to add such skills to their LinkedIn profiles than those at other seniority levels. It's with good reason — research shows that most organizations (51%) reported revenue increases of 10% or more after implementing generative AI.

• "If the difference between a good organization and a great one comes down to talent, then integrating AI to elevate talent sets great organizations apart from exceptional ones," Samantha Hammock, the chief human resources officer at Verizon, shared. "It's emerging as a must-have skill, no matter your role, generation or industry," she continued. At Verizon, it's helped her team "reduce their cognitive load and expand their capacity so they can focus on the higher-value, higher-touch tasks."

Get ready for the week by seeing what’s coming up.

Monday, May 5:

• The Institute for Supply Management will release its monthly Purchasing Managers’ Index, which tracks if the non-manufacturing sector is expanding. It is an indicator of economic health.

Wednesday, May 7:

• The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee will meet to set interest rates.

Thursday, May 8:

• The U.S. Department of Labor will release initial jobless claims for the previous week. The report, a proxy for layoffs, tracks the number of people filing for unemployment benefits.