March 2020 Jobs Report

The March jobs report is out and it’s one for the record books. The U.S. economy lost 701,000 jobs. This ends a streak of nine years and five months of job creation.

The unemployment rate is 4.4%

Average hourly earnings increased by 11 cents. That’s up 3.1% in the last year.

The report fails to capture the full damage from the virus because of government methodology. The Bureau of Labor Statistics used as its reference period the week ending March 12, which came just as the nation began its near shutdown.

A better picture of how profound the damage has been comes from the weekly initial jobless claims report, which have shown 10 million new filings for unemployment insurance over the past two weeks. Both weeks have far and away eclipsed anything the U.S. has ever seen in terms of job losses.

Posted by on April 3rd, 2020 at 8:34 am


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.