The US economy added more jobs than expected in March while the unemployment rate ticked lower, furthering signs the labor market remains on stronger footing than many predicted..
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday showed the labor market added 303,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in March, significantly more additions than the 214,000 expected by economists. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate decreased to 3.8%, from 3.9% in February.
Meanwhile, wages, considered an important metric for inflation pressures, increased 4.1%, their lowest level since June 2021.
The report comes as investors continue to watch for signs of cooling in the labor market while hoping for overall strength to support Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s current base case for interest cuts later this year. After two months of strong job gains, Powell has referred to the labor market as “strong but rebalancing” in a speech at Stanford University on Thursday.
Strength in the labor market has been considered a key to the economy avoiding recession while the Fed keeps rates restrictive to help fight inflation.
Elsewhere in the report, the labor force participation rate picked up to 62.7%, from 62.5% previously, and the average weekly hours worked increased from 34.3 to 34.4.
Broadly, other data out this week has reflected a still-resilient labor market. The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), released Tuesday, showed both job openings and hires ticked up slightly in February. Meanwhile, the latest data on private employment from ADP showed 185,000 private jobs were added in March, above the 155,000 seen in February.
“The February Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey report is consistent with a labor market that is still quite healthy,” Oxford Economics lead US economist Nancy Vanden Houten wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday.
Josh Schafer is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X @_joshschafer.
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