The Labor Department released its monthly hiring and unemployment figures for March on Friday morning, providing an important snapshot of the American economy.
196,000 jobs were added last month, a rebound from the February report, which showed a gain of just 20,000. Economic analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected a gain of about 170,000 jobs in March. It was the 102nd straight month of job gains.
The Labor Department also revised the jobs numbers for January and February. The economy added 33,000 new jobs in February, up 13,000. There was also a slight upward revision of 1,000 jobs in January, to 312,000.
The unemployment rate for March was 3.8 percent, the same as in February.
Average hourly earnings in March were 3.2 percent higher than a year earlier. That compares with a 3.4 percent year-over-year gain in February.
Everyone can relax.
The solid job gains that have come to define the current economic expansion resumed in March. The gain in hiring, though widely forecast, will clear some of the doubts hanging over the economy. Though the economy is expected to slow this year from the strong pace of 2018, Friday’s report was a welcome sign that job creation remains robust.
The Big Picture
The United States economy is still enjoying one of its longest expansions on record. It has produced nearly 21 million jobs since the labor market bottomed out in 2010, and the unemployment rate has plunged from a peak of 10 percent in October 2009.
But in recent months, doubts have grown. The invigorating effects of the tax cuts enacted at the end of 2017 are expected to fade. Large overseas economies have slowed, in part a reaction to continuing trade tensions. And while the stock market has rallied since a rout at the end of last year, other important financial indicators — such as government bond yields — suggest that investors expect growth to moderate.
Most economists shrugged off the anemic job report for February, saying the number could have been affected by cold weather and the partial shutdown of the federal government. In recent years, low monthly jobs numbers have usually been followed by a rebound.
Several economic indicators released since the February report suggested that the economy was still capable of adding 150,000 or more jobs a month. The number of people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time has declined to lows not seen in decades, and recent surveys of the construction and manufacturing industries did not suggest that employers were pulling back.
The Wages of Growth
For years, even as the economy added jobs and unemployment kept falling, wage increases were lackluster. But employees now appear to be getting solid raises. The 3.4 percent year-on-year increase in February was more than double the annual inflation rate for the month.
With the jobless rate at a historic low, employers have to offer higher wages and more attractive benefits to lure workers. Julia Pollak, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter, a job-search company, said that was reflected in the job postings on her company’s site. In March, 34 percent of the openings advertised on ZipRecruiter had benefits, up from 19 percent a year earlier.
“And the range of perks is growing,” Ms. Pollak said.
Steady wage growth may be the catalyst that helps keep the economic expansion going: Higher wages encourage more spending, and companies that wish to meet that extra demand have to hire more people.
Ms. Pollak said this could be seen in the leisure and hospitality industries, which benefit when people have more money to spend on eating out and traveling. In the past year, the number of jobs in those two sectors grew at a significantly faster pace than in the job market over all.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/business/jobs-report-unemployment-march.html
2019-04-05 12:33:45Z
52780260918694
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar