The US economy added 178,000 jobs in March, soaring past expectations, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate edged down to 4.3%.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected a gain of 65,000 jobs, reversing February’s drop. That month’s loss grew even bigger with revisions: from 92,000 to a new figure in Friday’s report of 133,000. Economists had projected no change in the unemployment rate from February’s 4.4%.
Friday’s data offers a picture of the job market just as the US-Israel war on Iran began to weigh on an economy already slogging through a weak hiring rate.
While overall job growth was better than anticipated, the share of people who have been without work for 27 weeks or more as a percentage of all unemployed ticked up slightly to 25.4%, underscoring how difficult it is to secure a position for those already out of work, even as layoffs remain relatively low.
Much of March’s gain can be attributed to growth in one key sector — healthcare. A strike of healthcare workers pulled February’s payrolls down, only for the sector to add 76,000 jobs in March and push overall job growth higher.
Positions were also added in construction, transportation, and warehousing.
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