March jobs report comes in hot

We’ll never turn down good news. So, let’s take it all in with open eyes and ears: The March jobs report came in hotter than expected.

Employers added 303,000 jobs this March, seasonally adjusted, according to the Labor Department. That handily beats the 200,000 or so economists anticipated, per FactSet estimates.

March’s figures also show that the unemployment rate dropped to 3.8%, the slightest of slight dips from 3.9% in February. “It’s been 26 months in a row with unemployment below 4%,” Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Barkin said at a Maryland event on Friday. “That’s the first time that’s happened since the late ’60s. So the job market is very strong.”

Wage growth had a small improvement as well: Average hourly earnings climbed 0.3%, or 12 cents, from February. That’s 4.1% higher than a year ago, or the slightest yearly gain since June 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported.

It’s good news—though it could delay the Fed’s timing for future interest rate cuts, potentially pushing them later to avoid doing so in an inflationary environment.

“Today’s jobs report raises the possibility that rather than slowing down, job growth might be holding steady,” Nick Bunker, Indeed Hiring Lab’s North American economic research director, told CFO Brew via email. “But this strength is coming from sources that are more sustainable than those that fueled the burst of gains in 2021. March’s jobs numbers were uniformly strong, and upticks in the employment-population ratio and labor force participation in particular suggest that demand for workers is not outstripping supply, like it was a few years back.”

President Biden, for one, was quick to tout the job numbers as proof of the strength of his economic policies as he bids for reelection.

“Today’s report marks a milestone in America’s comeback. Three years ago, I inherited an economy on the brink,” Biden said in a statement. “With today’s report of 303,000 new jobs in March, we have passed the milestone of 15 million jobs created since I took office.”

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