WASHINGTON, April 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US unemployment rate dipped slightly to 6.0 percent in March as the country added a much higher-than-forecast 916,000 jobs in a pandemic-suppressed market, the Labor Department announced.
“Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 916,000 in March, and the unemployment rate edged down to 6.0 percent,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a unit within the Labor Department, said in a statement.
For February, the bureau originally reported a non-farm payrolls growth of 379,000 and an unemployment rate of 6.2 percent. On Friday, it revised the February jobs growth number to 468,000 but kept the unemployment rate at 6.2 percent.
Economists polled by US media had an on-target unemployment forecast of 6.0 percent for March, although their expectations for jobs growth were way lower at 660,000.
“This report lands on Good Friday … (and) there’s nothing to dislike in this report,” economist Adam Button said in a commentary on ForexLive. “The unemployment rate was in line with estimates but given the uptick in the participation rate, that’s good news.”
The leisure and hospitality sector was the biggest driver for employment in March with 280,000 jobs, the Labor Department said.
The government sector alone added 136,000 jobs, from “continued resumption of in-person learning and other school-related activities in many parts of the country,” the department said.
Education and health services saw 101,000 jobs to nearly double their February gain, while new positions in transportation and warehousing rose by almost 50,000. Retail trade jobs rose by 22,500 for a third straight monthly gain, and professional and business service jobs also posted a third consecutive monthly increase, with payrolls climbing by 66,000.
The United States lost more than 21 million jobs between March and April 2020, at the height of business lockdowns forced by the coronavirus pandemic. By latest estimates, almost 8.5 million of those jobs have not returned.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has said he did not expect the United States to return anytime soon to maximum employment, which will be one of the central bank’s criteria for raising interest rates, now at near zero. The Fed says maximum employment will be reached when the jobless rate falls to 4.0 percent or below. — NNN-AGENCIES