March 2017 NFP = 98,000

The March jobs report is out. The U.S. economy created 98,000 net new jobs last month. That’s well below expectations of 180,000, but the unemployment rate fell to 4.5%.

Manufacturing gained 11,000 jobs, but retail lost nearly 30,000 jobs.

For me, the key number is average hourly earnings. That rose by 0.2% in March. In the last year, AHE is up 2.7%.

Here’s a chart of NFP.

The unemployment rate is lower now than at anytime between March 1970 and April 1998.

12-month gain average hourly earnings.

Posted by on April 7th, 2017 at 8:31 am


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