RPLS: The US Economy Adds 66k Jobs in April

• Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) shows the economy added approximately 66k jobs in April 2026. This gain was driven by the Health Care and Social Assistance sector. Finance and Construction also saw significant employment gains. Meanwhile, Retail and Leisure and Hospitality showed significant declines.

• Within these sectors, the employers with the largest increases in employment were LifeBridge Health and Adventist Health System in Health Care and Social Assistance and Fidelity and Bank of America in Financial Activities. On the other hand, Darden Restaurants and Starbucks had the largest employment losses in the Leisure and Hospitality sector.

• Labor demand continued to cool in April, with RPLS showing active job postings declining further month-over-month. Decreases were led by the Education and Health Services and Financial Activities sectors.

• Salaries from new job postings ticked down very slightly in April, decreasing by a tenth of a percent from March to April. This is the second consecutive month of falling salaries. Sectors driving the decline were Leisure and Hospitality, and Utilities.

Employment

Revelio Public Labor Statistics (RPLS) shows the economy added 66.4k jobs in April 2026. The gain was driven by Health Care and Social Assistance, Financial Activities, and Construction. Meanwhile, Retail, Leisure and Hospitality continued to suffer large job losses.

Within these sectors, the employers with the largest declines were Starbucks and Darden Restaurants in Leisure and Hospitality and Target and Kroger in Retail. On the positive side, the employers adding the largest number of jobs were LifeBridge Health and Adventist Health System in Health Care and Social Assistance; and Fidelity and Bank of America in Finance.

The sectors adding and losing jobs look familiar from past months. Health Care and Social Assistance continues to lead the modest job gains, and retail trade and Leisure and Hospitality continue to lose a lot of jobs. This continues to widen the divide between relative strength in professional service industries and greater losses in blue collar jobs.

Layoff notices

We observe a slight increase in the number of employees notified with layoffs as part of WARN layoff notices in April. The number of employees notified of layoffs increased from ~25.2k employees in March to 32.5k employees in April.

The Wholesale Trade sector saw the largest number of employees notified of layoffs in April, followed by the Manufacturing sector, and the Education and Health Care sector. Within the Wholesale Trade sector, Republic National Distributing Company, the second largest beverage alcohol distributor of premium wine and spirits in the US, contributed the largest share of layoffs, followed by FreshRealm. In Information, we still see notices from Oracle’s major layoff announced at the end of February. We also see Amazon and eBay contributing the largest share of layoff notices in Retail Trade.

Hiring & attrition

The hiring rate ticked up in April, while attrition remained flat, resulting in positive job growth last month. While still in a downtrend, hiring finally moved higher, with the overall hiring rate rising 0.3pp from March to April. Gains were led by the Information and Financial Activities industries, which rose 1.2pp and 0.9pp, respectively.

While hiring moved higher, the rate of attrition remained unchanged last month. The biggest decline in the attrition rate was also seen in the Information sector, indicating an improving situation for workers in a sector increasingly impacted by AI. RPLS also showed declining attrition in Agriculture, Transportation and Warehousing, and Financial Activities, while attrition in the Leisure and Hospitality and Utilities sectors moved higher.

Job postings

The number of active job postings across the US economy ticked down again in April, as labor demand continues to cool. Overall job postings were down 1.5% month-over-month, and 5.0% year-over-year.

All industries except for one (Wholesale Trade) saw a net decrease in job postings from March to April, with the largest decreases in percentage terms seen in Education and Health Services, Financial Activities, and Leisure and Hospitality.

In terms of total volumes of job postings, we saw the biggest decreases in Education and Health Services, Professional and Business Services, and Retail Trade. Within Retail, low-price retailers Family Dollar and Dollar Tree both saw significant declines in job postings last month, and within Leisure and Hospitality, both Yum Brands and McDonald’s pulled back on active job postings.

Salaries from new job openings

Salaries from new job postings ticked down very slightly in April, decreasing by a tenth of a percent from March to April. This is the second consecutive month of falling salaries. Sectors driving the decline were Leisure and Hospitality, and Utilities.

Whataburger and Vail Resorts were among the companies with the largest month-over-month declines in salaries from new job postings for Leisure and Hospitality; as were Exelon and National Grid in the Utilities sector. Mining and Oil Extraction as well as Manufacturing saw increases in salaries from new job postings.

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