U.S. hiring rebounds as 196,000 jobs added
WASHINGTON — Hiring in the United States rebounded in March as U.S. employers added a solid 196,000 jobs, up sharply from February’s scant gain and evidence that many businesses still want to hire despite signs that the economy is slowing.
The unemployment rate remained at 3.8 percent, near the lowest level in almost 50 years, the Labor Department reported Friday. Wage growth slowed a bit in March, with average hourly pay increasing 3.2 percent from a year earlier. That was down from February’s year-over-year gain of 3.4 percent, the best in a decade.
The employment figures reported Friday by the government suggest that February’s anemic job growth— revised to 33,000, from an initial 20,000 — was merely a temporary blip and that businesses are confident the economy remains on a firm footing. Even with the current expansion nearly 10 years old, the U.S. economy remains resilient and is expected to grow at a steady pace this year.
“The labor market continues to shrug off headwinds and chug along,” said Martha Gimbel, director of economic research at job listings website Indeed.
At the same time, the economy is facing several challenges, from cautious consumers to slower growth in business investment to a U.S.-China trade war that is contributing to a weakening global economy.
Investors didn’t react much to the report. The stockmarket rose modestly, with the Dow Jones industrial average increasing 40 points at close.
The solid hiring and modest wage figure probably aren’t enough to change the Federal Reserve’s current plans to hold off on additional interest rate hikes, economists said.
Fed officials as recently as December had suggested they could raise rates twice this year. But in March, after financial markets turned volatile and inflation showed signs of slipping, the Fed said it would likely keep rates unchanged this year.
The jobs data “are not strong enough to dislodge the Fed from its current policy path,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, a consulting firm.
Yet the data also provide little reason for the Fed to cut rates, economists said.
President Donald Trump, however, urged the Fed to do just that and restore the bond-buying program it used to lower longer-term interest rates earlier this decade in the aftermath of the Great Recession, an approach knownas “quantitative easing.”
“Our country’s doing unbelievably well economically,” Trump said.
But he also said Fed policy makers “really slowed us down,” and if they dropped rates and resumed buying bonds, “you would see a rocket ship.”
Quantitative easing was an emergency tool that the Fed, under Chairman Ben Bernanke, used to purchase trillions of dollars of government bonds and other securities. The third and last round was launched in 2012 when the unemployment rate was still 8 percent.
Trump has announced he intends to nominate two conservative political allies, Stephen Moore and former 2012 GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain for two current vacancies on the seven-member Fed board. These selections are seen as escalations in efforts to exert more political influence on the traditionally independent central bank.
This year, U.S. job gains have averaged 180,000 a month, enough to lower the jobless rate over time, though down from a 223,000 monthly average last year.
Last month, job growth was strongest in the service sector. Health care added 49,000 jobs, restaurants and bars 27,000, and professional and business services, which includes engineering and accounting, 37,000.
Manufacturers cut 6,000 jobs, marking the first decline in a year and a half.