AMNA NAWAZ: Well, it's been a tough week by many measures, but the latest jobs report came in stronger than expected with 228,000 new jobs in March.

That is well above the average monthly gain of 158,000 jobs over the last year.

And while the unemployment rate increased slightly to 4.2 percent, that was attributed in part to more people entering the job market.

But some warn that the data does not get reflect layoffs under way and that job opportunities are tightening in the white-collar sector.

As economics correspondent Paul Solman reports, that's a big worry for federal workers being cut.

PAUL SOLMAN: Today's job news was strong, says economist Gregory Daco.

GREGORY DACO, EY-Parthenon: The labor market, going into what is perhaps a massive shift in global trade dynamics, was still robust and supporting an economy that continues to grow at a moderate pace.

PAUL SOLMAN: For his part, President Trump posted on TRUTH Social: "Great job numbers, far better than expected.

It's already working.

WOMAN: I'm just going to listen here.

PAUL SOLMAN: And, indeed, jobs were added in health care, transportation and warehousing in March.

But future months?

GREGORY DACO: Tariffs, trade policy uncertainty, federal government job cuts and immigration restrictions could all weigh on the economy and push the economy towards stall speed.

PAUL SOLMAN: In fact, according to job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the federal government cut 216,000 jobs in March.

Today's report listed only 4,000.

GREGORY DACO: A large part of that is essentially reflective of the fact that, despite the very large job cut announcements, many people did not necessarily fully lose their job.

If you have the types of job cuts that were announced figure directly into the jobs report, then essentially you would be very close to zero print in terms of job growth in the month of March.

And that is really the key fear with these DOGE cuts, is that you see significant cuts at the federal government level that feed into cuts for contractors, and that in turn feed into broader cuts for private sector activities, as well as potential state and local government cutbacks.

PAUL SOLMAN: And the president's downsizing effort has already hit home on the ground.

DANA FOSTER, Laid Off Federal Worker: It's very hard to find a job right now.

PAUL SOLMAN: Museum curator Dana Foster has been looking since losing her dual job at Jimmy Carter National Historical park and Andersonville National Historic Site in Georgia.

DANA FOSTER: Museum jobs are really competitive and they're really hard to come by.

And it's really hard to find one that pays well.

A lot of museum jobs pay in the $37,000 range.

And, unfortunately, in most cities, that's not enough to live off of by yourself.

PAUL SOLMAN: Air Force vet Monique de l'Etoile started applying after losing her budget analyst job with the Veterans Health Administration.

MONIQUE DE L'ETOILE, Laid Off Federal Worker: I'm very nervous, and I have also not really had a lot of experience with private sector jobs.

So, I mean, that's just another hurdle that we have to get through.

PAUL SOLMAN: There's been a spike in job searches nationwide ever since Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency started scything, says Allison Shrivastava of the online job site indeed.

ALLISON SHRIVASTAVA, Indeed: Those with agencies under DOGE review saw a 50 percent increase in applications in just a single month.

So, it's pretty remarkable.

It's not something we have seen before.

PAUL SOLMAN: Nor have the nearly 70 percent of federal workers looking for work who hold a B.A.

or above.

ALLISON SHRIVASTAVA: Very highly educated work force, primarily in white-collar work, knowledge work, entering labor market when those jobs are pretty scarce to begin with.

And so reabsorbing them into that economy is going to be pretty difficult.

PAUL SOLMAN: According to data from ADP Research, hiring is slowed more for jobs requiring a college degree than for others.

De l'Etoile is still hoping for a budget analyst position like she had at the VA, but in the meantime: MONIQUE DE L'ETOILE: Been working at a retail store in the mall called Torrid.

The store manager is a good friend of mine and so she gave me some hours to get me through this mess.

PAUL SOLMAN: For laid-off Forest Service rangers Gregg Bafundo and his girlfriend, Julie Wilson (ph), in Washington state, there are other challenges.

GREGG BAFUNDO, Laid Off Federal Worker: A lot of these federal jobs, especially in the Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management or National Park Service, are in extremely remote regions of the country that are generally really red politically and that don't have much of an economic base.

In Okanogan County, where I live, if you don't raise cattle, there's not a whole going on.

PAUL SOLMAN: Moreover, the impact of federal cuts has been felt beyond workers employed by the government.

Sarah Titus managed food security programs at nonprofit Save the Children until USAID funding was cut.

SARAH TITUS, Laid Off Nonprofit Worker: There were 200 within Save the Children alone at least, and it was all our partner agencies that we work with, Mercy Corps and CARE and World Vision and then contracting organizations.

So I just -- I went on LinkedIn, and it just was so sad and angering to see how many people were suddenly out of work, you know, my entire network.

The numbers are kind of staggering.

PAUL SOLMAN: Staggering for hiring managers too, it seems.

SARAH TITUS: It's a common phrase for them to say we're just overwhelmed with the applications.

You're up against your former colleagues.

You're up against all of USAID.

You want everybody to get a job, but you're also looking for a job.So it's just -- we have -- none of us have experienced anything like this before.

PAUL SOLMAN: Georgia museum curator Dana Foster was recently called back to her job, but assumes she will soon be let go again, and the first time was bad enough.

DANA FOSTER: I didn't even say goodbye to my co-workers.

I just kind of like left the middle of the night kind of thing.

So I want to be able to go back and finish up some things and at least leave some notes for them, so that they know where I left off and where to pick up things when we're fired again.

PAUL SOLMAN: Federal jobs, long known for stability, now perhaps the most unreliable jobs of all.

For the "PBS News Hour," Paul Solman.