U.S. employers slowed hiring last month, but still added a solid 139,000 jobs amid uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s trade wars.

Hiring fell from a revised 147,000 in April, the Department of Labor said Friday. The job gains last month were above the 130,000 that economists had forecast.

Health care companies added 62,000 jobs and bars and restaurants 30,000. The federal government shed 22,000 jobs, however, the most since November 2020, as Trump’s job cuts and hiring freeze had an impact. And factories lost 8,000 jobs last month.

Average hourly wages rose 0.4% from April and 3.9% from a year earlier – a bit higher than forecast. The unemployment rate remained 4.2%.

There were a few signs of potential weakening. Labor Department revisions shaved 95,000 jobs from March and April payrolls. The number of people in the U.S. labor force — those working or looking for work — fell by 625,000 last month, the biggest drop since December 2023. And the percentage of those who had jobs fell last month to 59.7%, the lowest since January 2022.

The U.S. economy and job market have proven surprisingly resilient in recent years. When the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve raised their benchmark interest rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023, the higher borrowing costs were widely expected to tip the United States into a recession. They didn’t.

Still, the job market has clearly decelerated. So far this year, American employers have added an average of less than 124,000 a month. That is down 26% from last year, down almost 43% from 2023, and down 67% compared with 2022.

Recent economic reports have sent mixed signals.

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that U.S. job openings rose unexpectedly to 7.4 million in April — seemingly a good sign.

Surveys by the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, found that American manufacturing and services sectors were contracting last month.

And the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level in eight months.

— Associated Press