Hiring slows sharply. Gov't says only 98,000 new jobs created in March. Unemployment falls to 4.5%

Rss@dailykos.com (meteor Blades) · Friday, April 07, 2017, 9:08 am

The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday in its regular monthly employment situation report that the U.S. economy generated 98,000 new jobs in March, 89,000 in the private sector, 9,000 in the public sector. It was the lowest gain since March 2015 and one of the lowest of the 8-year-old recovery, but the seasonally adjusted net gain still marked the 78th consecutive month of overall job growth. The headline unemployment rate—which the BLS labels U3—fell slightly to 4.5 percent.

The consensus of experts surveyed by Bloomberg in advance of the report had forecast a gain of 178,000 jobs.

The BLS count always includes both full-time and part-time positions. A person who has worked EVEN one hour a week during the survey period is counted as employed.

In addition to the surprisingly low gains for last month, the bureau also revised its previous calculations for February from 235,000 to 219,000 and for January from 238,000 to 216,000.

Average hourly earnings in March rose 2.7 percent, or 68 cents, from last March. That marks a drop from the 2.8 percent annual growth recorded in February.

Since the summer of 2009, the period experts say the recovery began—based on renewed expansion of the gross domestic product—unemployment has fallen steadily but given the depth of the Great Recession, it took a long time for the job count to return to its pre-recession level. During most of his period, wages remained flat. Late last year, they began rising a slightly higher pace.

Unemployment rates differ by race and sex. For U3: Adult men:  4.3 percent; Adult women:  4.0 percent; Whites: 3.9 percent; Blacks: 8.0 percent; Asians: 3.3 percent; Hispanics: 5.1 percent; American Indians: (not counted monthly); Teenagers: 13.7 percent; (for teenagers of color, the unemployment rate is usually much higher.)

Source
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/oRGfdOp_hMo/-Hiring-slows-sharply-Gov-t-says-only-98-000-new-jobs-created-in-March-Unemployment-falls-to-4-5