The U.S. economy continued to surprise economists with its strength and resilience as it stares down tariffs, adding 147,000 jobs in June — although nearly half were government jobs — and nudging the unemployment rate down slightly, to 4.1%.

Today’s report from the Labor Department made an interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve at the end of the month appear even less likely despite President Donald Trump’s ongoing pressure on chairman Jerome Powell to make a move.

“June economic projections showed a Fed nearly evenly split between two cuts of 0.25% this year (or 0.5% total) and zero cuts, with a slight plurality wanting two cuts,” Ian Wyatt, director of economics at recreational marine lender Huntington Commercial Bank, told Trade Only Today.

“After the June meeting some governors openly campaigned to start cuts in July,” Wyatt added. “This [jobs] data may push back the first cut to September, which would be a compromise between the two camps and is in line with where the market sits after this report was released. The reality is the data may keep surprising us with steady job growth, and we could see no cuts this year.”

Further bolstering the outlook for the Fed standing pat were the job numbers for April and May, which the government revised a bit upward today. The April total rose by 11,000, to 158,000, and the May figure went up 5,000, to 144,000.

Economists’ consensus estimate was for a gain of about 110,000 jobs in June.

“We keep waiting for the job growth to slow down as some forecasted, and it hasn’t happened,” Wyatt said. “The U.S. economy has demonstrated a remarkable degree of resilience and ability to adapt to different circumstances while steadily adding jobs.

“The unemployment rate has held steady in a very narrow range of 4% to 4.2% since May of last year,” Wyatt added. “Like the unemployment rate, job gains have been very steady, with the economy adding 100,000 to 160,000 jobs each month this year. The June gain of 147,000 jobs continued that trend of very steady gains. The narrow gains remain very concerning, as it may reduce resilience of the economy to more shocks.”

Disappointingly, the Labor Department said government employment — and not any private-sector category — was the leading category for job gains in June, adding 73,000 positions. Gains in state governments provided the bulk of that increase, at 47,000, and most of those jobs — 40,000 — were in public education.

The gain in private-sector payrolls, at 74,000, was the smallest since last October. Health care, which had been the leading monthly category for overall job gains for more than a year, added another 39,000 jobs. Social assistance employment was up by 19,000. Other categories, such as leisure and hospitality, which had shown strong gains in recent months, saw little change in June.

“Job gains were relatively in line with expectations, and the pattern of only a few industry sectors driving most all of the growth has been true for the past year,” Wyatt said. “Relatively high interest rates are still playing a role slowing some segments of the economy and are one reason that job gains are narrow. In segments like manufacturing, durable goods sales remain subdued, partly due to [interest] rates, which limits employment gains.

“Rates also play a role in the weak employment trends in financial services and software,” Wyatt added. “The lack of turnover and job gains in many ‘college’ jobs is hurting new grads, but for the more established adults who are typical clients of boat dealers, the trends are solid: Workers are keeping their jobs, earnings are up 3.7% year-over-year, and the stock market has rebounded, leaving many older consumers with very strong balance sheets.”

The Labor Department said the labor force participation rate — the measure of the population that is in the workforce — slipped again in June, although slightly, to 62.3%.

The government also said workers’ hourly pay rose by 8 cents, or 0.2%, to $36.30 in June. During the past 12 months, earnings have increased 3.7%, slightly below the 12-month figure from May but still at a rate that is still well above the current rate of inflation.

Those pay gains did not boost consumer spending, which actually fell by 0.1% in May. It was the second time this year that spending fell during a month.

Ahead of the June jobs report, the Labor Department said Tuesday in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey that vacancies nationally rose in May by 374,000, to 7.8 million — the highest level since last November.

The government said layoffs fell by 188,000, to 1.6 million, and hiring fell by 112,000, to 5.5 million. The number of vacancies per unemployed worker rose slightly, to 1.1.

The ADP Research Institute said in its National Employment Report for June that private-sector employment actually fell by 33,000 in June after a net gain of just 37,000 the previous month. The downward trend started in April, when the gain was a sluggish 62,000 jobs.

“Though layoffs continue to be rare, a hesitancy to hire and a reluctance to replace departing workers led to job losses last month,” ADP chief economist Nela Richardson stated in a press release. “Still, the slowdown in hiring has yet to disrupt pay growth.”

Annual pay was up 4.4% for people who stayed in their current jobs. Among job-changers, the gain was 6.8%. Both figures were little changed from May.

The institute said hiring at large companies that employ 500 or more was the only category by size to see a gain in June, adding 30,000.