Cool March gives way to warmer April for jobs
Nick Rummell
MANHATTAN (CN) — The U.S. economy added 178,000 jobs last month, nearly triple the amount many economists had predicted.
The headline print was miles ahead of last month’s dismal jobs report, which showed a decline of 93,000 jobs in February, and far better than the roughly 60,000 jobs many economists had forecast.
The unemployment rate dipped down to 4.3% after hitting 4.4% last month, better than expected. However, the number of long-term unemployed — those who are jobless for at least 27 weeks — edged up by 322,000 over the last 12 months.
Revisions to the past two employment reports were a mixed bag: January’s report gained an additional 34,000 jobs to hit 160,000 jobs gained, but February’s report saw an additional 41,000 jobs wiped off the board for a total of 133,000 jobs lost that month.
The breakdown among sectors also wasn’t all rosy for March. Federal government employment predictably fell again, this time by 18,000 jobs, but so did jobs in finance and insurance, which lost 16,000 positions.
The health care industry remained the shining diamond, gaining 76,000 jobs in March, mostly due to the reversal of strikes weighing down that industry in February. The construction sector also added 26,000 jobs though it’s relatively flat for the year.
“Although most of this data is from the period prior to the war, it establishes a baseline of a resilient economy, with better-than-expected job growth and a lower unemployment rate,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Northlight Asset Management.
The private jobs report from payroll company ADP on Wednesday also provided a nice surprise, showing 62,000 jobs were added last month, better than the roughly 40,000 expected and in line with the 66,000 private sector jobs gained in February.
However, nearly the entirety of the gains were seen in education and health care, with 58,000 added posts, as well as construction, with 30,000. Transportation and manufacturing weighed down the overall total, losing a total of 69,000 jobs.
“Overall hiring is steady, but job growth continues to favor certain industries, including health care,” Nela Richardson, ADP’s chief economist, said in a statement.
The geographic breakdown of jobs also was lopsided, with Southern states gaining 101,000 jobs while the Northeast and Midwest lost a total 54,000 jobs. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees also reaped the benefits, gaining 85,000 jobs. Those with more than 50 employees saw their payrolls shrink.
On the wages front, those leaving their jobs saw a notable boost in pay, Richardson added, pointing to the 6.6% annualized pay increase among “job changers” compared with the 4.5% pay increase among “job stayers.”
Employees don’t necessarily think the grass is always greener, though, as the number of workers looking elsewhere for work did not change much in February, according to the monthly JOLTS report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nor did the number of job openings, which held fast at 6.9 million.
Job openings still remain an issue for companies, particularly smaller ones. According to a National Federation of Independent Business survey, nearly one-third of small businesses have job openings they cannot fill.
“For most workers, the uncertainty within the job market has suppressed the desire to move from one job to another,” said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial. “On the labor demand side, firms have pulled back on hiring rates.”