April 2026 Hiring Trends: Healthcare Continues to Lead

What HR Leaders Need to Know

The U.S. added 115,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in April 2026. That's a modest gain. It's not a blowout month, but it's also not a collapse. The unemployment rate stayed flat at 4.3%, with about 7.4 million Americans still looking for work.

To put the pace in perspective: over the past 12 months, monthly job growth has been nearly flat on the net. April's gain is actually one of the better months in that stretch.

For hourly hiring managers, this means the labor pool hasn't dramatically shifted. You're not suddenly swimming in applicants — but you're also not competing in the white-hot market of a few years ago.

Job Posting Signals

The April BLS report confirms what hourly hiring managers are already feeling on the ground: health care led all sectors, followed by Transportation & Warehousing and Retail, while Federal employment and Information-related industries continued to contract. But government data tells only part of the story. Snagajob and JobGet internal job posting activity tracks employer hiring demand in real time, offering an on-the-ground view of where momentum may be building before it shows up in the headlines.

Snagajob's April 2026 job posting activity showed:

Sectors on the Rise

Healthcare: +37,000 jobs; Health care was once again the star of the report. Nursing and residential care facilities added 15,000 jobs, and home health care services grew by 11,000. This continues a long-running trend of strong demand for frontline health workers — from CNAs and home health aides to medical assistants and support staff.

For hiring managers: If you're in health care or adjacent services, the talent competition isn't going away. Benefits, scheduling flexibility, and fast hiring processes are your biggest competitive tools.

Transportation & Warehousing: +30,000 jobs; This sector had a big month, driven almost entirely by couriers and messengers, which added 38,000 jobs. Think last-mile delivery, package handling, and logistics support. That said, overall transportation and warehousing employment is still down 105,000 from its February 2025 peak — so the recovery is real but partial.

For hiring managers: Delivery and warehouse roles remain high-volume and high-turnover. Speed to hire and onboarding efficiency are critical.

Retail Trade: +22,000 jobs; Retail bounced back in April. The biggest gains came from warehouse clubs and supercenters (+18,000) and building materials and garden supply stores (+13,000). Department stores shed 7,000 jobs, and electronics and appliance retailers lost another 2,000 — reflecting ongoing shifts in where consumers shop.

For hiring managers: Big-box and home improvement retail are actively hiring. If you're staffing those environments, now is a good time to build your pipeline before summer demand peaks.

Social Assistance: +17,000; Individual and family services drove this sector's growth, adding 24,000 jobs. These are often community-based roles — case workers, childcare providers, residential support workers — that tend to be hourly and mission-driven.

Industries in Decline:

Federal Government: -9,000 jobs; Federal employment has now fallen by 348,000 jobs — or 11.5% — since its peak in October 2024. That's a significant contraction at the federal level, and it's ongoing.

This matters to hourly employers indirectly: former federal workers and contractors re-entering the private labor market could increase the applicant pool in certain metro areas and skill sets, particularly in administrative and support roles.

Information: -13,000 jobs; The information sector has been shrinking for years. It's now down 342,000 jobs — 11% — since its November 2022 peak. Losses hit telecommunications, motion picture production, and data processing services.

Wages: Still Growing, But Cooling

Wage growth remains positive:

• + 0.2% month-over-month

• +3.6% year-over-year

For production and nonsupervisory employees (most hourly workers):

• $32.23 average hourly earnings

• + 0.3% month-over-month

Wage growth is still running ahead of pre-pandemic norms, but it has slowed from the sharp spikes seen in 2021–2023. That means the pressure to constantly raise starting pay may ease slightly — but workers still have more negotiating power than they did five years ago.

Average weekly hours for private-sector employees ticked up slightly to 34.3 hours — a small positive signal that employers are giving existing workers more time rather than cutting back.

The Bigger Picture

Part-Time Work Is Rising

The number of people working part time for economic reasons — meaning they want full-time work but can't find it — jumped by 445,000 in April to 4.9 million. This is one of the sharpest monthly increases in recent memory and is a sign that some employers are pulling back hours rather than doing full layoffs.
For hourly workers, this can mean lost income even without a job loss. For hiring managers, it signals an opportunity: workers hungry for consistent, full-time schedules may be more available than you think.

Labor Force Participation Slipped to 61.8% from 62.5%

A growing share of working-age Americans aren't looking for jobs at all. This isn't a new trend, but it does limit the pool of available workers over time.

Long-Term Unemployment Persists

Long-term unemployment (out of work for 27 weeks or more) now accounts for 25.3% of all unemployed people. Long-term joblessness makes it harder for workers to re-enter the workforce, and it's a slow-burning problem that doesn't show up in the headline rate.

What This Means for Hourly Hiring Managers

The April report paints a picture of a labor market in transition. Here's how to read it if you're staffing hourly roles:

• Health care, retail, and delivery are your most active competitors for hourly talent. Know what they're offering.

• Part-time workers want more hours. If you can offer predictable, full-time or close-to-full-time schedules, that's a real differentiator right now.

• Wage growth is moderating — but expectations aren't. Workers still expect competitive pay. You may not need to outbid everyone, but you can't fall significantly behind market rate.

• Applicant pools are shifting. Federal layoffs and information sector contractions mean some experienced workers are newly available in markets that had been tight.

• Urgency matters. In a market where workers have choices, slow hiring processes lose candidates. Speed and simplicity in your application and onboarding are competitive advantages.

What the Experts Are Saying

The April jobs report sparked a wide range of reactions from economists and major news organizations. While many saw continued stability, others pointed to signs of a more uneven labor market beneath the surface.

Wall Street Journal — "The U.S. job market blew past expectations again in April, buoyed by gains across industries including retail, transportation and warehousing, and healthcare. The results were a sign that the labor market remained resilient so far in the face of the Iran war."

CNN — "In April, average hourly earnings rose 0.2% to put the annual rate of pay gains at 3.6%, landing it above inflation – for now. "

New York Times — "The median number of weeks that unemployed people have been out of work sits at 11, down from the previous month and closer to the mild level of about 10 weeks throughout last year.”

New York Times — "The labor force participation rate for prime aged workers, those between the ages of 25 and 54, has been remarkably stable for the last couple of years. It now sits at 83.8 percent, not far from the record high set in the late 1990s."

As the hourly expert, Snagajob and JobGet is here to help with your hiring needs. Contact our team today to learn more about our solutions for enterprise, mid-size, and small businesses.

Sources

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Employment Situation — April 2026 jobs report

• Snagajob internal job posting data, April 2026