Total U.S. jobs

National economy added 303,000 jobs in March

Nonfarm payroll job growth remained solid in March, with the U.S. economy adding 303,000 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis. This was well above consensus expectations of around 200,000 workers being added in the month. Over the past four months, the U.S. economy has averaged 280,000 net new workers per month, a very strong pace. 

Overall, these data show that the labor market remains a bright spot, helping to provide resilience to economic growth and for increased spending. Nonfarm payroll employment has risen for 39 consecutive months, adding 15.6 million jobs in that period. As a result of the steady gains, total U.S. employment stood more than 5.8 million (or 3.8%) above the February 2020 pre-pandemic peak, rising to a new record level: 158.1 million. 

The unemployment rate edged down from 3.9% in February to 3.8% in March, with the number of unemployed Americans ticking down from 6,458,000 to 6,429,000. Encouragingly, the labor force participation rate increased from 62.5% to 62.7%.

Average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers among private sector workers rose 4.2% over the past 12 months, the slowest pace since June 2021, albeit at a still elevated rate. The labor market remains tight but has seen some cooling over the past couple of years. For reference, year-over-year earnings growth peaked at 7.0% in March 2022. 

Job growth continued across both the private and public sectors in March. The private sector added a net 232,000 jobs in March, while government employment increased by 71,000. Here is a breakdown of the employment growth in March by sector (ranked from highest to least):  

•    Private education and health services (up 88,000)

•    Leisure and hospitality (up 49,000, including 28,300 for eating and drinking places)

•    Local government (up 49,000)

•    Construction (up 39,000)

•    Trade, transportation and utilities (up 27,000, including 17,600 for retail sales)

•    Other services (up 16,000)

•    State government (up 13,000)

•    Federal government (up 9,000)

•    Professional and business services (up 7,000)

•    Financial activities (up 3,000)

•    Mining and logging (up 3,000)

•    Information (unchanged)

•    Manufacturing (unchanged)


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