Strong Jobs Report for March

This morning, the government released the March jobs report. During the month, the U.S. economy created 431,000 net new jobs. Wall Street had been expecting 490,000. The numbers for January and February were revised higher as well.

The unemployment rate fell to 3.6%. That’s another post-Covid low. It’s also lower than every single month from January 1970 through August 2019.

The broader U-6 rate fell to 6.9%. That’s just 0.1% above the all-time low from 2019, although that series only goes back to 1994.

The moves in the jobless metrics came as the labor force participation rate increased one-tenth of a percentage point to 62.4%, to within 1 point of its pre-pandemic level in February 2020. The labor force grew by 418,000 workers and is now within 174,000 of the pre-pandemic state.

Average hourly earnings, a closely watched inflation metric, increased 0.4% on the month, in line with expectations. On a 12-month basis, pay rose nearly 5.6%, just above the estimate. The average work week, which figures into productivity, edged down by 0.1 hour to 34.6 hours.

Also this morning, the ISM Manufacturing Index fell to 57.1. That’s an OK number. Wall Street had been expecting 59.0.

Posted by on April 1st, 2022 at 1:52 pm


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