March's unemployment report, out this morning from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, broke the recent string of outstanding jobs numbers. The economy added 126,000 jobs last month, the first time in more than a year that the figure came in under 200,000. It was the worst month for jobs since December 2013, although the headline unemployment figure was unchanged at 5.5 percent.
With the figures now in for the entire first quarter, the economy added an average of 197,000 jobs in the first three months of 2015, which is down sharply from the fourth quarter of 2014, when the average was 324,000 jobs a month. For the 12 months prior to March, the U.S. added an average 269,000 jobs a month.
On the other hand, the first quarter of 2015 looks a lot like the first quarter of 2014, when job growth averaged 193,000. It's possible that another harsh, snowy winter has caused another temporary slowdown in the economy.
No comments:
Post a Comment