The U.S. economy added 215,000 jobs in March and unemployment was 5.0%, essentially unchanged from February, according to figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This continues the record string of months with job growth.
In response to the March jobs numbers, AFL-CIO Chief Economist William Spriggs tweeted the following:
Need to look at more than just the number of jobs created when assessing the health of the economy #BLSData #jobsreport @AFLCIO
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) April 1, 2016
Number of discouraged workers continues to fall--this month by 153,000 @AFLCIO
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) April 1, 2016
Wages show small rebound from last month, up by 7 cents, over the year wages up 2.3% not inflationary @AFLCIO
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) April 1, 2016
Latino unemployment rate edges back up to 5.6% after 3 months of decline, mostly because labor force participation rises @AFLCIO
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) April 1, 2016
Construction continues to show growth, up 301,000 over the year, gains shown in heavy construction and civil engineering @aflcio
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) April 1, 2016
Minimum wages rising everywhere, and food services continues it roll of job increases up 25,000 @aflcio @fightfor15
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) April 1, 2016
Shaky global environment casts shadows on manufacturing: payroll down 29,000 including 7k lost in machinery @AFLCIO
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) April 1, 2016
Effect of global glut of steel and China dumping, primary metals shows loss 3,000 in payroll @USWBlogger @AFLCIO
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) April 1, 2016
Last month’s biggest job gains were in retail trade (48,000), health care (37,000), construction (37,000), food services and drinking places (25,000), and financial activities (15,000). The mining industry and manufacturing saw losses. According to BLS, other major industries, including wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, information, and government, changed little over the month.
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (4.5%), adult women (4.6%), teenagers (15.9%), whites (4.3 %), blacks (9.0%), Asians (4.0%) and Hispanics (5.6%) showed little or no change.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was essentially unchanged at 2.2 million in March and accounted for 27.6% of the unemployed.