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Don’t look now, but the labor market in the U.S. has demonstrably improved. Where we had been at historic lows on job openings and under water on private-sector payrolls roughly a year ago, we’re now seeing monthly highs that go back prior to the second Trump administration.
Yesterday’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report for April spiked to 7.6 job openings, up from 6.88 million expected and the 6.89 million reported. This is the highest monthly tally since November of 2024, after two downward-moving months. Job Quits quieted to 3.0 million in the month.
The biggest change between March and April was in the near-million-job swing among Professional/Business Services positions, which went from -318K in the former month to +668K in the latter. In March, only the Northeast region gained in job opportunities; for April, only the Midwest did not show a gain in new job openings.
Automatic Data Processing ((ADP - Free Report) released its monthly private-sector payroll report this morning for May, posting +122K new jobs filled outside the government sector — the strongest month for this metric since January of 2025. It improves above the +117K consensus estimate and the downwardly revised +105K for April.
Small businesses bounced back in a big way: +67K new private-sector jobs were gained at firms of fewer than 50 employees. Large companies (over 500 employees) grew by +40K, and medium-sized businesses added +17K. Unsurprisingly, Education/Healthcare led by industry, +57K, followed by renewed strength in Trade/Transportation/Utilities at +36K, +11K at Professional/Business consulting, and +8K in Construction. This last may speak to the spreading out of AI investment to material parts of the economy — the building out of data centers includes plenty of construction work.
“Hiring has been more broad-based,” ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson said, which bears out these findings. Meanwhile, wage gains in the private sector have been a non-factor: those who stayed in their current jobs made +4.4% more on average, whereas jobs changers averaged +6.6%. This remains a very narrow bar in the relatively short time ADP has kept this metric.
Q1 Earnings at a Glance: M, MDT & More to Come
Retail companies wrap up Q1 earnings season this morning, with department store major Macy’s ((M - Free Report) reporting its most impressive quarter in years: earnings of $0.13 per share trounced the +$0.02 expected, for a positive earnings surprise of +550%. Revenues also outpaced estimates, but by a more modest +1.28%. Raised guidance helped sentiment, and shares are up around +1% in today’s pre-market.
Medtronic ((MDT - Free Report) , the world’s largest medical device company, also beat estimates this morning, for its fiscal Q4. Earnings of $1.55 per share improved over the Zacks consensus by a penny, on revenues of $9.81 billion — its highest growth in a decade — and above expectations by +1.48%. Shares are up +4% at this hour of the pre-market, but still down nearly -20% year to date.
After today’s close, the earnings parade sweeps up some of its final noteworthy reporters. These include semiconductor giant Broadcom ((AVGO - Free Report) , cybersecurity major CrowdStrike ((CRWD - Free Report) and Calvin Klein/Tommy Hilfiger parent PVH ((PVH - Free Report) .
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Private Payrolls Increased More Than Expected
Jobs Week Coming Up Roses So Far: JOLTS, ADP
Don’t look now, but the labor market in the U.S. has demonstrably improved. Where we had been at historic lows on job openings and under water on private-sector payrolls roughly a year ago, we’re now seeing monthly highs that go back prior to the second Trump administration.
Yesterday’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report for April spiked to 7.6 job openings, up from 6.88 million expected and the 6.89 million reported. This is the highest monthly tally since November of 2024, after two downward-moving months. Job Quits quieted to 3.0 million in the month.
The biggest change between March and April was in the near-million-job swing among Professional/Business Services positions, which went from -318K in the former month to +668K in the latter. In March, only the Northeast region gained in job opportunities; for April, only the Midwest did not show a gain in new job openings.
Automatic Data Processing ((ADP - Free Report) released its monthly private-sector payroll report this morning for May, posting +122K new jobs filled outside the government sector — the strongest month for this metric since January of 2025. It improves above the +117K consensus estimate and the downwardly revised +105K for April.
Small businesses bounced back in a big way: +67K new private-sector jobs were gained at firms of fewer than 50 employees. Large companies (over 500 employees) grew by +40K, and medium-sized businesses added +17K. Unsurprisingly, Education/Healthcare led by industry, +57K, followed by renewed strength in Trade/Transportation/Utilities at +36K, +11K at Professional/Business consulting, and +8K in Construction. This last may speak to the spreading out of AI investment to material parts of the economy — the building out of data centers includes plenty of construction work.
“Hiring has been more broad-based,” ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson said, which bears out these findings. Meanwhile, wage gains in the private sector have been a non-factor: those who stayed in their current jobs made +4.4% more on average, whereas jobs changers averaged +6.6%. This remains a very narrow bar in the relatively short time ADP has kept this metric.
Q1 Earnings at a Glance: M, MDT & More to Come
Retail companies wrap up Q1 earnings season this morning, with department store major Macy’s ((M - Free Report) reporting its most impressive quarter in years: earnings of $0.13 per share trounced the +$0.02 expected, for a positive earnings surprise of +550%. Revenues also outpaced estimates, but by a more modest +1.28%. Raised guidance helped sentiment, and shares are up around +1% in today’s pre-market.
Medtronic ((MDT - Free Report) , the world’s largest medical device company, also beat estimates this morning, for its fiscal Q4. Earnings of $1.55 per share improved over the Zacks consensus by a penny, on revenues of $9.81 billion — its highest growth in a decade — and above expectations by +1.48%. Shares are up +4% at this hour of the pre-market, but still down nearly -20% year to date.
After today’s close, the earnings parade sweeps up some of its final noteworthy reporters. These include semiconductor giant Broadcom ((AVGO - Free Report) , cybersecurity major CrowdStrike ((CRWD - Free Report) and Calvin Klein/Tommy Hilfiger parent PVH ((PVH - Free Report) .