Job creation in the United States in March was solid, but at a declining rate. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said last Friday that 236,000 new jobs were created in March, less than more than 300,000 created in February and less than half a million in January. March was the 27th month of consecutive job creation, with more than 1 million jobs created thus far, during this year’s first quarter. The unemployment rate decreased from 3.6 percent in February to 3.5 percent, while average hourly earnings slowed to 4.2 percent, the weakest increase since 2021 and still below the rate of inflation.
Those sectors most sensitive to high interest rates lost jobs, such as retail 14,600, construction 9,000 and manufacturing 1,000. By contrast, leisure and hospitality added 72,000 jobs, education and health 65,000, business services 39,000 and even the government hired 47,000 new workers.
The job creation figures released last week did not yet reflect the impact of the mid-March turbulence among some regional banks, which will be included in the next report, due on May 5. This will happen after the next meeting of the central bank’s Open Market Committee, scheduled for May 2-3. However, according to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, futures markets anticipate 70 percent chance the central bank will approve another 0.25 percent increase in the federal funds interest rate.
