The US economy added 178,000 jobs in March, soaring past expectations, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate edged down to 4.3%.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected a gain of 65,000 jobs, reversing February’s drop. That month’s loss grew even bigger with revisions: from 92,000 to a new figure in Friday’s report of 133,000. Economists had projected no change in the unemployment rate from February’s 4.4%.

Friday’s data offers a picture of the job market just as the US-Israel war on Iran began to weigh on an economy already slogging through a weak hiring rate.

Read more about the state of the US jobs market.

While overall job growth was better than anticipated, the share of people who have been without work for 27 weeks or more as a percentage of all unemployed ticked up slightly to 25.4%, underscoring how difficult it is to secure a position for those already out of work, even as layoffs remain relatively low.

The number of “marginally attached” workers — those who wanted work but hadn’t recently looked for a job — increased by 325,000 in March, the Labor Department said, while discouraged workers who believed no jobs were available to them rose by 144,000. Much of March’s gain can be attributed to growth in one key sector: healthcare. A strike of healthcare workers pulled February’s payrolls down, only for the sector to add 76,000 jobs in March and push overall job growth higher.

Positions were also added in construction, transportation, and warehousing.

“March’s report showed stronger gains than anticipated, offering an early signal that employers may be moving ahead with hiring plans more decisively than earlier in the quarter,” Ger Doyle, North America regional president at Manpower Group, said in a statement.

But there’s still the war with Iran, which could strain a delicate labor market, as well as developments in artificial intelligence.

“In our baseline for 2026, we expect a weaker job market but not one where unemployment rises so much as to tip us into recession,” Atsi Sheth, chief credit officer at Moody’s Ratings, said Friday. “We’ll keep assessing that expectation over future jobs data releases, closely watching employment trends in sectors most affected by the energy and supply chain disruption of the Middle East conflict, those subject to technology-driven labor displacement, and those where waning consumer demand squeezes margins.”

Sign up for the Mind Your Money newsletter

Click here for the latest personal finance news to help you with investing, paying off debt, buying a home, retirement, and more

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance