Report: A dismal March clouds jobs picture
Employment increased by only 126,000 in March, the weakest showing in months, according to a government report.
This month’s total is anemic when compared with previous months. Consider that during the past year, the economy added about 269,000 jobs per month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Not only can March be best described with the word dismal, but it turns out that job gains throughout the first part of this year were overstated. The report said that “employment gains in January and February combined were 69,000 less than previously reported. Over the past 3 months, job gains have averaged 197,000 per month.”
So given that the country is not adding jobs as fast as economists first thought, how is it that the unemployment rate remains the same?
One interesting note in the report is that the number of “new entrants” into the workforce is on the decline. The Labor Department defines “unemployed new entrants” as those who have never worked. The number of new entrants decreased by 157,000 in March and is down 342,000 during the past year.
Some areas that continually added jobs included business services, health care and retail. But the mining industry is losing jobs. The number of jobs in that industry declined 11,000 in March alone, according to the government's report. So far this year, the industry has lost a total of 30,000 jobs. It had gained 40,000 jobs throughout 2014. The jobs added in 2014 and the jobs cut in 2015 were in mining support activities, the department said.
Where does all this leave us?
Among the many commentators, Justin Wolfers, senior fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics, summed up the economic situation on Twitter: “If your favorite economic commentator thinks they know what the economy is doing right now, they're overconfident. Lots of uncertainty.”
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