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US Economy Adds 236K Jobs in March, Unemployment Now 3.5%

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The March jobs report showed hiring slowed last month but likely not by enough to ease pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in its efforts to slow inflation.

The U.S. economy added 236,000 jobs in March while the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday showed.

Here are the key figures from the report, compared to last month’s revised numbers:

  • Nonfarm payrolls: plus-236,000 vs. plus-326,000
  • Unemployment rate: 3.5% vs. 3.6%
  • Average hourly earnings, month-over-month: plus-0.3% vs. plus-0.2%
  • Average hourly earnings, year-over-year: plus-4.2% vs. plus-4.6%

By industry, leisure and hospitality was again the largest contributor to last month’s job gains with 72,000 new workers coming into the sector during March. Temporary help services was the second-largest contributor to job growth last month with 65,000 workers joining the sector.

The labor force participation rate also ticked higher in March, rising to 62.6% from 62.5% in February. Average weekly hours worked fell slightly to 34.4 from 34.5.

Over the last six months the U.S. economy has added an average of 334,000 jobs each month.

Click here to see the full report from Myles Udland at Yahoo Finance.

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