Investing.com - The U.S. economy added far more jobs than anticipated in May, while the unemployment rate matched the preceding month, signaling resilience in the American labor market despite headwinds posed by the war in Iran.

Nonfarm payrolls last month stood at 172,000, well above market forecasts of 85,000, thanks in part to gains in sectors like leisure and hospitality, local government and health care. Employment in financial activities slipped.

April’s total was revised sharply higher to 179,000, versus an initial mark of 115,000. March’s updated figure was increased as well, moving up to 214,000 from 185,000 originally. Put together, employment in those two months was 93,000 roles higher than previous reported, the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said.

"[O]verall, the report suggests that the U.S. labor market is on solid footing and remains in balanced territory," analysts at CIBC Economics said in a note.

Meanwhile, the U.S. jobless rate came in at 4.3%, equaling both April’s pace and economists’ expectations. Month-on-month, average hourly earnings also ticked up by 0.3%, in line with estimates and faster than 0.2% in April.

The report followed similarly robust readings in April and March, which combined suggest that the U.S. labor market has been so far able to withstand the impact of the now more than three-month old Iran conflict. Since the start of the joint U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran in late February, oil prices have spiked, fueling fears of a burst of inflationary pressure that could weigh on overall activity.

Bets have subsequently grown that central banks, including the Federal Reserve, could opt to raise interest rates in response. Friday’s nonfarm payrolls data may mean that Fed expectations will be swayed in a hawkish direction, although because the unemployment rate and wage growth "weren’t particularly hot," the policy outlook "probably won’t shift that dramatically," analysts at Vital Knowledge said in a note.

Markets now anticipate that the Fed will lift rates at least once by the end of 2026, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool. Previously, investors had been expecting the central bank to keep borrowing costs steady for the rest of the year, before rolling out an increase early in 2027.

U.S. government bond yields, which tend to move inversely to prices, moved higher in the wake of the report. The rate-sensitive 2-year Treasury yield, added 6.5 basis points to 4.115%, while its benchmark 10-year counterpart increased 5.3 basis points to 4.53%. Late on Thursday, the 10-year yield was hovering around 4.477%.