Key Points:
- Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 303,000 in March and the unemployment rate fell 0.1% to 3.8%.
- Consensus among economists was a gain of 200,000 jobs.
- The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for January was revised up by 27,000, from +229,000 to +256,000, and the change for February was revised down by 5,000, from +275,000 to +270,000. With these revisions, employment in January and February combined is 22,000 higher than previously reported.
- Health care added 72,000 jobs in March, government employment rose by 71,000, leisure and hospitality increased by 49,000, construction added 39,000 jobs, and retail trade added 18,000.
- In March, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by $0.12 to $34.69.
- The average workweek for all private employees edged up by 0.1 hours to 34.4 hours in March.
- The labor force participation rate rose to 62.7% and is 0.7% below its February 2020 level.
- In March, the unemployed population was flat at 6.4 million but job openings rose to 8.8 million in February.