Friday, April 6, 2018

March Jobs Report

The U.S. economy added just a somewhat disappointing 103,000 jobs in March, the lowest number in six months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning. The headline unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent.

The figures for the first two months of the year were also revised downward. The new numbers show employers added 326,000 jobs in February and 176,000 in January, a net downward revision of 50,000. Still, through the first three months of the year, employers have added an average of 202,000 workers to payrolls, ahead of 2017’s average monthly growth of 182,000.

Wage growth ticked upward, but was still below expectations. Average hourly earnings for all private-sector workers increased 8 cents last month to $26.82. Wages rose 2.7 percent from a year earlier in March. Wages haven’t increased at better than a 3 percent rate from a year earlier since the recession ended in 2009.

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