In spite of high inflation and fears of an upcoming recession, job numbers from last month were… pretty good! With respect to employment, March’s numbers indicate a return to (some kind of) pre-pandemic normalcy. 👏
The unemployment rate beat analysts’ expectations — March’s unemployment rate clocked in at 3.6% (below analysts’ expected 3.7% and below February’s rate of 3.8%.) Additional nonfarm payrolls for the month totaled 431,000 (economists expected 490,000 payrolls.) Overall, the U.S. labor force increased by 418,000 employees, just 174,000 workers shy from pre-pandemic participation in the workforce. 🙌
Here’s a sector breakdown of where jobs were added:
- Leisure & hospitality: 112,000
- Professional & business services: 102,000
- Retail: 49,000
- Manufacturing: 38,000
- Social assistance: 25,000
- Construction: 19,000
- Financial: 16,000
March has marked the eleventh consecutive month that the U.S. workforce has increased by over 400,000 laborers/month. 📈 Lydia Boussour of Oxford Economics shared her enthusiasm for March’s strong employment figures:
“All the constraints on the labor supply that were prevailing in 2021 have really eased. [That is] a really important factor in driving that next leg of the recovery and getting employment back to where it was before the pandemic.” Right on! 🥳