President Donald Trump on Friday demanded Apple and other smartphone makers like Samsung make their phones in the United States or face a 25% tariff.

“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,” Trump posted Friday morning on Truth Social. “If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S.”

Speaking to press in the Oval Office on Friday after signing executive orders, Trump said the tariff would apply to any phone maker selling devices in the US.

“It would be more. It would be also Samsung and anybody that makes that product,” Trump told reporters. “Otherwise it wouldn’t be fair.”

Trump last week during his Middle East trip said he was displeased with Cook, Apple’s CEO, over the company’s plan to manufacture iPhones set to be sold in the United States at newly built plants in India.

Over the past several years, Apple had been working to diversify its production capabilities. Some iPhone production had already moved to India, and Cook on Apple’s earnings call with investors earlier this month said he expected “the majority of iPhones sold in the US will have India as their country of origin.”

On that call, Cook said he expected Apple would face a tariff burden of up to $900 million this quarter. However, it could have been significantly worse: Apple and other US tech companies scored a big win last month when Trump exempted electronics from his massive tariffs on China.

Unlike Apple, Samsung doesn’t rely on China for smartphone production. The South Korea-based tech giant closed its last phone factory in China in 2019 after losing market share to domestic rivals, though it still has operations there. Sources within Samsung previously told CNN that the vast majority of its smartphone manufacturing takes place in South Korea, Vietnam, India and Brazil.

Despite lowering his tariff to at least 30% on most Chinese goods — down from 145% earlier this month — a 10% universal tariff remains on the majority of goods entering the United States. Roughly 90% of Apple’s iPhone production and assembly is based in China, according to Wedbush Securities’ estimates.

Trump met with Cook in Riyadh at the beginning of the president’s Middle East trip last week. In Qatar, he called out Cook for his plan to build US-bound iPhones in India.

“I had a little problem with Tim Cook,” Trump said last week in Qatar. “I said to him, ‘Tim, you’re my friend. I treated you very good. You’re coming in with $500 billion.’ But now I hear you’re building all over India. I don’t want you building in India.’”

Cook met with Trump once again at the White House on Tuesday, an administration official told CNN. The official did not divulge the subject matter of the meeting.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with Fox News on Friday morning that Trump is trying to “bring back precision manufacturing to the US.”

“I think that one of our greatest vulnerabilities are these, is this external production, especially in semiconductors, and a large part of Apple’s components are in semiconductors,” Bessent said. “So we would like to have Apple help us make the semiconductor supply chain more secure.”

Some of Apple’s chips are already made in the United States, thanks to its partnership with TSMC, which recently opened a chipmaking plant in Arizona. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

‘Those jobs aren’t coming back’

The world’s most valuable publicly traded company is flush with cash and rakes in tremendous profit — more than any company in history. But Apple has long contended that it cannot manufacture iPhones in America.

Apple has invested billions of dollars training millions of skilled engineers abroad. China and India, with their massive populations, simply have more skilled engineers than the United States does. And it costs Apple significantly less to pay those workers.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s late CEO, famously brought up the issue during an October 2010 meeting with former President Barack Obama. He called America’s lackluster education system an obstacle for Apple, which needed 30,000 industrial engineers to support its on-site factory workers.

“You can’t find that many in America to hire,” Jobs told Obama, according to his biographer, Walter Isaacson. “If you could educate these engineers, we could move more manufacturing plants here.”

In a 2012 interview with tech journalists Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook said he agreed with Jobs’ assessment. When asked if the day would ever come when an Apple product is made in the United States, he said: “I want there to be … and you can bet that we’ll use the whole of our influence on this.”

The notion Apple can reshore iPhone production is a “fictional tale,” Dan Ives, global head of technology research at financial services firm Wedbush Securities, told CNN’s Erin Burnett last month.

US-made iPhones could cost more than three times their current price of around $1,000, he said, because it would be necessary to replicate the highly complex production ecosystem that currently exists in Asia.

“You build that (supply chain) in the US with a fab in West Virginia and New Jersey, they’ll be $3,500 iPhones,” he said, referring to fabrication plants, or high-tech manufacturing facilities where computer chips that power electronic devices are normally made.

And even then, it would cost Apple about $30 billion and three years to move just 10% of its supply chain to the US to begin with, Ives told Burnett.

Ives reiterated that stance in a statement following Trump’s Friday tariff threat, saying, “the concept of Apple producing iPhones in the US is a fairy tale that is not feasible.” He estimated moving all of Apple’s iPhone production to the United States would take five to 10 years.

An additional 25% tariff on Apple products could result in higher prices for US iPhone buyers. Rumors have already been swirling that Apple is considering raising prices when it releases its new lineup of iPhones in the fall — a move that could further irk Trump, although the company will likely avoid directly attributing the increases to tariffs.

Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, estimates it would be difficult for Apple not to raise iPhone prices if it faces tariffs of 30% or higher.

“Anything below 30, they will probably carry the vast majority of that increase,” he said. “But I think at some point they’re going to have to start to share it.”

While moving iPhone production to the United States may not be possible, Apple did announce a $500 billion investment to expand its US facilities earlier this year, in an apparent effort to appease Trump.

The company said the investment would create a new facility to produce servers — previously made outside the United States — in Houston to support Apple Intelligence, its new brand of artificial intelligence products. It will also expand data center capacity in several states, and plans to invest in corporate facilities and production of Apple TV+ shows in 20 states, among other efforts.

This story has been updated with additional details and context.

In an announcement that many investors knew was coming but didn’t believe would actually happen, famed investor Warren Buffett said Saturday at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting that he would step down as CEO at the end of the year.

Greg Abel would take over at that point, pending board approval, and Buffett said he would not sell one share of Berkshire stock. Abel, the vice chairman of non-insurance operations of Berkshire, was designated as Buffett’s successor in 2021. Buffett will remain as chairman before turning that role over to his son, Howard Buffett, upon his death.

“Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year-end, and I want to spring that on the directors effectively,” Buffett said at CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska.

Buffett said only his children knew he would be stepping down.

The thousands in attendance gave Buffett a standing ovation.

Buffett, 94, was expected to discuss his succession plans at the event. He has been with Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) since it was formed in 1965.

From an early investor to one of the world’s richest people

Born in Omaha in 1930, Buffett first became an investor when he was only 11 years old. He purchased his first stock in 1942 — three shares of Cities Service, an oil company, each worth about $38. He eventually sold the stock at $40, a mere profit of $2 per share, although he could have later sold for $200 per share.

When he was 6, Buffett sold popular chewing gum brands and bottles of Coca-Cola, which Berkshire now has a massive stake in.

At 13, Buffett’s family moved to Washington, DC, when his father was elected to the US House of Representatives. Buffett would work as a newspaper delivery boy for The Washington Post. After earning $2,000 by the age of 15, he invested $1,200 in a 40-acre Nebraska farm.

Behind his savvy investing, Buffett had $5,000 in savings before he turned 20. After graduating from the University of Nebraska in 1950, he pursued a master’s in economics at the Columbia Business School in New York, paving the path to use $100 of his own money in 1956 to launch his investment company, Buffett Partnership.

In 1965, Buffett took control of a struggling textile mill in New Bedford, Massachusetts, called Berkshire Hathaway, which he helped grow into a giant conglomerate with close partner Charlie Munger.

Berkshire would acquire See’s Candies, and buy stakes in Coca-Cola and television network ABC, among other investments.

By 2025, Berkshire had a market capitalization of $1.1 trillion.

Buffett is the fifth richest person in the world, with a net worth of $169 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.

Buffett addresses tariffs

Buffett also finally shared what he thinks about tariffs.

The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway called America’s trade wars a “big mistake.”

“Trade should not be a weapon,” Buffett said. He also said that “trade could be an act of war.”

“The United States won. I mean, we have become an incredibly important country, starting from nothing 250 years ago,” Buffett said.

Buffett drew applause when he added: “(America) should do what we do best and (other countries) should do what they do best.”

Throughout the earnings release at the firm’s annual shareholders meeting, the company warned that tariffs made its outlook uncertain. Berkshire’s quarterly report said tariffs could have a negative impact on its growth.

“Changes in macroeconomic conditions and geopolitical events, including changes in international trade policies and tariffs, may negatively affect our operating results and the values of our investments in equity securities and of our operating businesses,” Berkshire said Saturday in its quarterly note. “We are currently unable to reliably predict the nature, timing or magnitude of the potential economic consequences of any such changes or the impacts on our Consolidated Financial Statements.”

Berkshire’s operating earnings fell 14% for the first three months of the year. Its insurance underwriting business made $1.33 billion in the first quarter, a nearly 50% decline from the first quarter of 2024, when it generated nearly $2.6 billion.

The “Oracle of Omaha” arrived at the event, aired live on CNBC, with heavy security and after shares of Berkshire hit a record high on Friday. The event drew former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, Apple CEO Tim Cook and former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates.

Speaking from the weekend event dubbed “Woodstock for Capitalists,” Buffett’s long-awaited comments come as concerns grow about markets and the economy. Major indexes in recent weeks have plunged, surged and bounced around in every direction over uncertainty about President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs and the effects they may have on the global economy.

Warren Buffett smiles during an interview in Omaha, Nebraska, in May 2018. Nati Harnik/AP Buffett was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on August 30, 1930. He was the only son of Laila and Howard Buffett. Howard was a US congressman. Courtesy of Susie Buffett A young Buffett, far left, is seen with his grandfather, Ernest, as well as his cousins and two sisters. Courtesy of Susie Buffett Laila Buffett poses with her three children — from left, Roberta, Warren and Doris. Courtesy of Susie Buffett Warren Buffett stands in front of his childhood home in Omaha. Courtesy of Susie Buffett Buffett teaches a class at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Courtesy of Susie Buffett Buffett married his first wife, Susan, in 1952. They had three children together: Peter, Howard and Susan. The latter two are seen here with their parents. Courtesy of Susie Buffett Buffett and his wife pose at the beach with their three children. Courtesy of Susie Buffett Buffett poses for a photo in 1980. Lee Balterman/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images Buffett testifies before a House subcommittee after the Salomon Brothers investment bank was caught in a treasury bond scandal in 1991. Buffett took over as the company’s chairman of the board to guide it out of troubles with the Federal Reserve System. Marcy Nighswander/AP Buffett attends one of Berkshire’s annual shareholders meeting. Seated with him here are his daughter Susan, left, and his wife Susan. Buffett’s wife died in 2004. Mark Peterson/Corbis/Getty Images Buffett arrives at an Omaha Dairy Queen to autograph books and chat with Berkshire Hathaway shareholders in 2002. Many people were in Omaha for Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meeting, which has been described as “the Woodstock of Capitalism.” Nati Harnik/AP Buffett attends a GEICO ceremony in Trenton, New Jersey, in 2004. Curt Hudson/Bloomberg/Getty Images Buffett joins California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger during a meeting of Wall Street investors in New York in 2004. Buffett advised Schwarzenegger’s gubernatorial campaign in 2003. Kathy Willens/Pool/Getty Images Buffett sits atop a fake bull at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in 2006. Chris Machian/Bloomberg/Getty Images Buffett stacks his chips at a charity poker tournament in Omaha in 2006. Dave Weaver/AP Buffett plays the ukulele with a band during the Berkshire Hathaway meeting in 2007. He learned the instrument decades ago. Nati Harnik/AP Buffett stands in front of a portrait of himself, painted by Michael Israel, in 2008. Chris Machian/Bloomberg/Getty Images Buffett throws out the first pitch before a Kansas City Royals baseball game in 2008. John Sleezer/Kansas City Star/MCT/Getty Images Buffett sits with Girl Scouts in Omaha in 2008. Nati Harnik/AP Buffett uses a large paddle to play table tennis in 2010. Nati Harnik/AP Buffett and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates enjoy a meal together at the Hollywood Diner in Omaha in 2010. That year, the two launched The Giving Pledge, which encourages the world’s billionaires to dedicate the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. Mark Peterson/Redux Buffett is sworn in to testify before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in 2010. The bipartisan committee was created by Congress to investigate the causes of the financial crisis. Mario Tama/Getty Images President Barack Obama awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Buffett in 2011. “Today, we know Warren Buffett not only as one of the world’s richest men, but also one of the most admired and respected,” Obama said. “Unmoved by financial fads, he has doggedly sought out value, put his weight behind companies with promise and demonstrated that integrity isn’t just a good trait — it is good for business.” Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images Buffett is mobbed by journalists and shareholders during Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meeting in 2011. Nati Harnik/AP Buffett talks with his son Peter before the start of the shareholders meeting in 2011. Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images Buffett poses for a photo in Omaha in 2012. Harry Benson/Contour by Getty Images Buffett and his second wife, Astrid, arrive at the White House for a state dinner honoring British Prime Minister David Cameron in 2012. The next month, Buffett confirmed that he had been diagnosed with Stage 1 prostate cancer. He underwent radiation treatments and told Berkshire Hathaway shareholders that the cancer was “not remotely life-threatening.” Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images Buffett looks out at Omaha in 2012. Harry Benson/Contour by Getty Images Buffett wears a Woodrow Wilson High School jacket as he attends an event in Washington, DC, in 2012. Buffett graduated from the Washington high school in 1947. Kristoffer Tripplaar/Alamy Buffett is photographed for Forbes magazine in 2012. Harry Benson/Contour by Getty Images Buffett listens as his son Howard speaks during an interview in New York in 2013. Buffett and his late first wife, Susan, gave and pledged billions to each of their three children to fund charitable foundations. Howard, an Illinois farmer, picked global hunger as his target. Scott Eells/Bloomberg/Getty Images Buffett spins a basketball with the help of Chris “Handles” Franklin, one of the Harlem Globetrotters, at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in 2013. At left is football star Ndamukong Suh. Nati Harnik/AP Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger are seen on a giant screen during the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in 2013. Nati Harnik/AP Buffett arrives for a conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, in 2014. Scott Olson/Getty Images Buffett introduces products to shareholders before their annual meeting in 2014. Huang Jihui/Xinhua/Alamy Buffett goofs off with Cleveland Cavaliers mascot Moon Dog prior to an NBA game in 2014. Jason Miller/Getty Images Buffett does an interview in 2015. Adam Jeffery/CNBC/NBCUniversal/Getty Images Buffett listens as presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during an event in Omaha in 2015. Buffett said at the rally that he was supporting Clinton’s bid for president because they share a commitment to help the less affluent. Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images Buffett attends the world premiere of “Becoming Warren Buffett,” a documentary about his life, in 2017. J. Kempin/Getty Images Buffett attends Forbes’ 100th anniversary gala in New York in 2017. Andy Kropa/Invision/AP Buffett walks through the exhibit hall during Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholders meeting in 2019. Scott Morgan/Reuters Buffett speaks during Berkshire Hathaway’s virtual shareholders meeting in May 2020. Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images Warren Buffett’s life in pictures Prev Next

Buffett discusses Berkshire’s cash pile

Buffett addressed Berkshire sitting on hoards of cash. The company has about $347 billion in cash, up from $334.2 billion at the end of 2024.

Buffett said that Berkshire will eventually find places to invest its cash, but that “it’s very unlikely to happen tomorrow. It’s not unlikely to happen in five years.”

“We have made a lot of money by not being fully invested at all times,” Buffett said. “We don’t think it’s improper actually, for people who are passive investors just to make a few simple investments and sit for their life. But we made the decision to be in the business so we think we can do a little better than that by behaving in a very irregular manner.”

He touched on the importance of avoiding making impulse investments.

“Let’s say we had roughly $40 billion a year coming in … if you told me we had to invest $50 billion every year ‘till we got down to $50 billion — that would be the dumbest thing in the world to invest in that manner,” Buffett said.

He also mentioned that Berkshire nearly invested $10 billion but declined to discuss what asset.

Giving thanks to Apple

At the start of the event, Buffett gave a rare shoutout to Apple’s Cook, who was seated on the floor with other major stakeholders and guests.

“Tim Cook has made Berkshire a lot more money than I’ve ever made Berkshire Hathaway,” Buffett said when Cook stood from his seat in the crowd.

Berkshire Hathaway has major stakes in five companies: American Express, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Chevron and Apple. But much of Berkshire Hathaway’s investment value relies on Apple, which was valued at nearly $70 billion as of the end of September 2024, according to Berkshire’s third-quarter earnings report.

Attendees wait in line outside CHI Health Center during a shareholders shopping day ahead of the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 2. Dan Brouillette/Bloomberg/Getty Images

“Nobody but Steve (Jobs) could have created Apple, but nobody but Tim could have developed it like it has,” Buffett said, adding that credit was due to the tech company. Buffett said Cook has done a “wonderful job” running Apple.

Berkshire downsized its stake in Apple by nearly 50% during the second quarter of 2024, knocking its stake from 790 million shares to 400 million. It was a rare decision for Buffett, who is known for holding on to stocks for long periods of time.

‘Not been a dramatic bear market’

In what sounded like a calming comment for investors, Buffett downplayed markets’ recent volatility.

“What has happened in the last 30, 45 days … is really nothing,” he said.

The S&P 500 on Friday closed at 5,686.67 after closing at 5,675.12 on March 17.

“This has not been a dramatic bear market or anything of the sort,” Buffett said.

Who can fix the deficit?

The federal deficit, which hit $1.8 trillion in October, has been a major talking point in recent months as Trump tapped Tesla CEO Elon Musk to lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency — tasked with slashing federal spending and jobs.

When asked about cost-cutting and DOGE, Buffett quoted economist Herbert Stein, saying, “If something can’t go on forever, it will end.” Buffett added the deficit is “unsustainable” and could get to a point that is “uncontrollable.”

“I think that it’s a job I don’t want, but it’s a job I think should be done, and Congress does not seem good at doing it,” Buffett said about someone solving the US deficit.

“We’ve come close multiple times and we still had very substantial inflation in the United States, but it’s never been runaway yet, and that’s not something you want to try and experiment with because it feeds on itself,” he said.

He later added that while it’s easy to increase spending, “it’s hard to cut people’s receipts.”

Greg Abel, the successor to Warren Buffett

Prior to Buffett’s announcement, there were questions about Abel taking over Berkshire.

Abel, 62, an Edmonton, Alberta-born businessman, who is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy and the vice-chairman of non-insurance operations of Berkshire Hathaway, is slated to succeed Buffett at the start of 2026.

Sitting next to Buffett, Abel was asked to describe himself to investors.

“I would say, ‘more active.’ But hopefully in a very positive way, and we’ve got an exceptional group so it’s gone exceptionally well,” he said.

“At the same time, (Berkshire Hathaway) have great businesses and they run them very autonomously and that remains in place. If there (are) opportunities they see in their industry, we’re going to discuss it and see if that’s something we need to pursue or if we’re properly addressing the risk.

“I absolutely had to engage with each of them and they’ve been great and sharing their business models, their approach, their thoughts around where the risks and opportunity are. As we went through that, I had questions and wanted to engage with them. Warren talks about the curiosity being important as you go through things, that would be my style, to have questions and comments around their business, their frameworks.”

Buffett chimed in about Abel.

“It’s working way better with Greg than with me because … I don’t want to work as hard as he worked and I can get away with it, because we’ve got a basically good business — very good business,” Buffett said.

“The fact that you can do pretty well doesn’t mean you can’t do better, and Greg can do better at many things,” he added.

Buffett described Abel as someone whose active leadership is effective.

“You really need someone that behaves well on top and is not playing games for their own benefit, and we get a lot of managers that bend over backward to not do that sort of thing and then we get some that bend forward,” he said. “Greg does something about it and I’ve generally been lax in doing something about it.”

Thousands gather to hear Oracle of Omaha

Although a typical shareholder meeting is a dusty, staid affair, the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting is entirely different.

Representatives and executives from many of the conglomerate’s companies talk to starstruck fans and stakeholders on a massive showroom floor at CHI Health Center. Any appearance by Buffett (security and reporters in tow) is usually met by a rush of people trying to take photos or videos with the nonagenarian.

And of course, many of the Berkshire companies on display sell limited-edition, shareholder-meeting merch. Buffett is, after all, known for making money.

Berkshire has grown so sprawling that it has in some ways become a reflection of the country itself. You can drive yourself in a Geico-insured car to get a Dairy Queen ice cream before you head back to your Clayton home powered by Berkshire Hathaway energy, to name a small slice of Buffett’s empire.

But that has led to its own problems for Buffett, who has repeatedly said in recent years that his company is so big it will struggle to deliver the kind of early eye-popping gains that made him such a figure of devotion for his investors.

For many of them, he’s more than just a business leader, he is a guide, a sage, the Oracle of Omaha.

This story has been updated with additional content.

America’s long-resilient job market continues to defy expectations — even in the wake of swirling uncertainty.

The US economy added a surprisingly strong 177,000 jobs in April, a slight slowdown from March’s downwardly revised 185,000 gains, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday. April’s gain was stronger than the average pace of monthly job growth in the prior three months.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.2%, a historically low level.

Economists polled by data firm FactSet were expecting the economy to have added just 135,000 jobs last month, and that the unemployment rate held at 4.2%.

US stocks moved higher Friday morning as investors digested the report. The Dow rose 490 points, or 1.2%. The broader S&P 500 rose 1.15% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 1%.

People visit a job fair booth on April 30 in Sunrise, Florida. Over 150 local hiring managers & recruiters were at the fair to recruit workers for 1000s of positions in Miami, Broward, and Palm Beach County. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

April’s jobs report marks another solid month of employment gains and a continuation of a historic expansion of the labor market, but that’s on the backdrop of growing recession fears.

Since staging a stunning recovery from the pandemic, the labor market has been a pillar of strength for the economy. It remains to be seen if that will persist amid the historically high level of uncertainty sowed by President Donald Trump’s policies.

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer touted the jobs news Friday, telling CNN’s Pamela Brown, “Everything in this jobs report was positive.” Despite Americans’ growing concerns about a recession, she said, “We see no reason that a recession is anywhere near.”

Meanwhile, Trump once again called on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates after the jobs report.

“… employment strong, and much more good news, as Billions of Dollars pour in from Tariffs,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “Consumers have been waiting for years to see pricing come down. NO INFLATION, THE FED SHOULD LOWER ITS RATE!!!”

However, there’s no truth to Trump’s claim that there’s “no inflation.” Data released by the Commerce Department this week showed that the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index — the Fed’s favored inflation gauge — rose 2.3% in March from the year before. That’s a slower pace of price hikes than February’s 2.7% increase.

The Fed is facing a unique dilemma over whether to lower interest rates as inflation remains above its 2% target or to raise rates to brace for the inflationary impact from Trump’s tariffs.

Additionally, the administration’s major policy shifts have already shown up in official labor figures: The federal government shed 9,000 jobs last month, down 26,000 since January, the Labor Department reported. Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency has slashed jobs and eliminated or dramatically downsized a slew of federal agencies. Still, the government sector overall, including state and local, was up 10,000 jobs in April.

“We can push recession concerns to another month,” Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, said in commentary issued Friday. “Job numbers remain very strong, suggesting there was an impressive degree of resilience in the economy in play before the tariff shock.”

April’s top job creators

Many of the same industries that have pumped out jobs over the past year continued to do so in April.

The private education and health services sector was April’s top job creator, adding 70,000 jobs last month. Many of those gains were driven by the health care industry, which contributed 51,000 of those jobs. Hospitals and ambulatory health service providers were the top job-creating firms in the industry.

The transportation and warehousing industry was April’s second-biggest job creator, expanding headcount by 29,000. In recent months, Americans have rushed to purchase goods to get ahead of Trump’s tariffs, which sent retail sales surging in March.

Leisure and hospitality also added jobs at a brisk pace last month, growing employment by 24,000. The industry has been a reliable source of job growth over the past year, but that could be a risk for the broader labor market’s strength if people begin to cut back on spending.

“A cooling economy could see discretionary spending — such as eating out and travel — being trimmed early on,” said James Knightley, chief international economist at ING. “This points to the risk of a sharp slowdown in hiring within the leisure and hospitality sector.”

In addition to the federal government, retailers and manufacturers lost jobs in April, declining by 1,800 and 1,000 jobs, respectively.

Employers paralyzed by uncertainty

While the labor market seems to be holding steady for now, surveys demonstrate employers are on edge over the Trump administration’s massive policy shifts, which doesn’t bode well for hiring.

“What seems like a perfect report shows what could have been for the US economy before the tariff bite,” Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon, told CNN’s Matt Egan on Friday. “Tariffs only started to bite later in the month, so the demand and employment shock will be more visible in the May-June data.”

Expanding headcount is typically a costly investment for businesses, so the uncertainty stemming from Trump’s policies is likely giving business leaders some pause. In addition to the frenetic back-and-forth on tariffs, which makes it difficult to account for future costs, businesses are also facing possible cutbacks in federal funding and worker shortages due to Trump’s clampdown on immigration.

The share of small businesses planning to create new jobs declined sharply in March, according to the National Federation of Independent Business’ latest survey. The NFIB said in a release that “the last time hiring plans were this low was April 2024.” And it’s not just small businesses waiting for some clarity.

“The narrative that we’re hearing from the corporate community is that we want to wait and see,” said Nathan Sheets, global chief economist at Citigroup. “And even if folks are optimistic, they will ultimately land in an okay place, they still want to see what everything will look like, which could weigh on business investment.”

On Tuesday, the Labor Department reported that employers had about 7.2 million job openings in March, slightly above a four-year low reached in September. Economists look at gauges of labor demand for clues on future hiring.

The Federal Reserve’s latest Beige Book report, a periodic collection of survey responses from businesses across the country, was riddled with anecdotes of firms citing uncertainty as a major headache. Many also signaled plans to curb their hiring as a result.

“Many firms planned to pause or limit hiring going forward because of policy uncertainty,” the report said, referring to businesses in the Boston Fed’s district.

A snapshot this week of the US labor market by payroll services provider ADP didn’t show the same strength reflected in the government’s tally. ADP said employers added just 62,000 jobs in April, well below the 147,000 jobs it reported for March.

A mixed-bag labor market

On many fronts, the labor market looks to be in great shape, but it has its flaws.

Unemployment remains low, employers continue to add jobs at a brisk pace, and wages continue to outpace inflation. In April, average hourly earnings grew 3.8% from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Friday. That’s well above the 2.3% annual gain for consumer prices, according to the March PCE.

Still, Americans who are out of work are struggling to find employment. The latest jobs report showed that people who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks, and are seeking a job, rose in April to 1.67 million, the highest level since February 2022.

People are also remaining on unemployment rolls for longer. The number of Americans receiving ongoing jobless benefits rose to 1.91 million in the week ending April 19, the Labor Department reported Thursday, the highest level since November 2021. Continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag.

“While the April jobs report confirms that the labor market has not yet stalled, the combination of trade uncertainty, federal downsizing and restricted labor supply is clearly taking a toll,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at Loyola-Marymount University, in a note Friday. “Industries likely to be hardest hit in the coming months include manufacturing, retail, transportation, agriculture, hospitality and federal contract services.”

For the Fed, which is slated to announce its latest policy decision next week, the labor market’s resilience means the central bank can continue to stand pat on interest rates as officials wait for Trump’s policies to show up in economic data. The Fed lowers borrowing costs when it’s clear that inflation is heading toward its 2% target — but also when the labor market unexpectedly falters.