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US added modest 103K jobs in March; rate stays 4.1 pct.
By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added a modest 103,000 jobs in March af- ter several months of robust gains, though the government’s overall jobs report suggests that the labor market remains fundamentally healthy.
e unemployment rate remained at 4.1 percent, a 17-year low, for a sixth straight month, the Labor Department said Friday. Average hourly pay ticked up, climbing 2.7 percent compared with a year earlier.
e government on Friday also revised down its estimate of job growth for Janu- ary and February by a combined 50,000. Still, over the past six months, employers have added a healthy average of 211,000 jobs a month, evidence that hiring in the United States remains solid and the econ- omy on solid footing in its ninth year of recovery from the Great Recession.
Last month’s modest job gain may indicate that some employers want to
hire more but are struggling to nd the workers they need. A separate government report last month showed that there was nearly one open job for every unemployed person, the lowest ratio on records dating back two decades.
Some of the drop-o in hiring for March was weather-related, with late spring snow-
storms blanketing the Northeast, closing construction sites and likely postponing shopping trips for spring clothes. Con- struction companies cut 15,000 jobs a er ve months of big gains. Retailers shed 4,400 jobs.
e U.S. economy as a whole appears
to be sturdy, with the recovery from
the 2008-2009 Great Recession now the second-longest expansion since the 1850s, when economists began tracking reces- sions and recoveries. Still, the expansion has been puzzlingly slow, with economic growth averaging just 2.2 percent a year — about a percentage point below the historical average. But its durability has been broadly bene cial.
For example, a rising number of work- ing-age Americans have begun looking for a job and nding one, reversing a trend from the rst few years a er the recession when many of the unemployed grew dis- couraged and stopped looking for work.
An increasing need to compete for workers may also nally be li ing wages
in some sectors. Yet the steady in ux of new workers, which gives employers more hiring options than the low unemployment rate might otherwise suggest, may be hold- ing back overall pay growth.
ough the economy likely slowed in the rst three months of this year, econ-
omists expect growth will rebound in the coming months. Macroeconomic Advisers, a consulting rm, forecasts that the econ- omy grew at just a 1.4 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter — less than half the 2.9 percent annual pace of the October-December quarter. But the rm expects growth to rebound to a decent 3.1 percent annual pace in the current April- June quarter.
Other reports indicate that growing optimism among businesses and consum- ers should help propel the economy in the months ahead.
Businesses have stepped up their spend- ing on manufactured goods, helping li factory output.
And last month, factories expanded at a healthy pace a er having grown in Febru- ary at the fastest rate since 2004, accord- ing to a private survey. Government data showed that orders for long-lasting factory goods — including industrial machinery, metals and autos — surged in February.
Americans have spent less at retail chains in the past two months, a er shop- ping at a healthy pace during the winter holiday season. With consumer con dence near the highest point in two decades, however, consumer spending is likely to rebound in the coming months.
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