US employers added 303,000 jobs in March in sign o economic strength
WASHINGTON — America's employers delivered another outpouring of jobs in March, adding a sizzling 303,000 workers to their payrolls and bolstering hopes that the economy can vanquish in ation without succumbing to a recession in the face of high interest rates.
Last month's job growth was up from a revised 270,000 in February and was far above the 200,000 economists had forecast. By any measure, it amounted to a strong month of hiring, and it re.ected the economy's ability to withstand the pressure of high borrowing costs resulting from the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes. With the nation's consumers continuing to spend, many employers have kept hiring to meet steady customer demand.
Friday's report from the Labor Department also showed that the unemployment rate dipped to 3.8% from 3.9% in February. That rate has now come in below 4% for 26 straight months, the longest such streak since the 1960s.
Normally, a blockbuster bounty of new jobs would fan worries that the additional spending from those new workers could accelerate in.ation. But the March jobs report showed that wage growth was mild last month, which might allay any such fears. Average hourly wages were up 4.1% from a year earlier, the smallest year-over-year increase since mid-2021. But hourly pay rose 0.3% from February to March after increasing 0.2% the month before.
The economy is sure to weigh on Americans' minds as the November presidential vote nears and they assess President Joe Biden's reelection bid. Many people still feel squeezed by the in.ation surge that erupted in the spring of 2021. Eleven rate increases by the Fed have helped send in.ation tumbling from its peak over the past year and a half. But average prices are still about 18% higher than they were in February 2021 — a fact for which Biden might pay a political price.
The Fed's policymakers are tracking the state of the economy, the job market and in.ation to determine when to begin cutting interest rates from their multidecade highs — a move eagerly awaited by Wall Street traders, businesses, homebuyers and people in need of cars, household appliances and other major purchases that are typically Gnanced. Rate cuts by the Fed would likely lead, over time, to lower borrowing rates across the economy.
The central bank's policymakers started raising rates two years ago to try to tame in.ation, which by mid-2022 was running at a fourdecade high. Those rate hikes — 11 of them from March 2022 through July 2023 — helped drastically slow in.ation. Consumer prices were up 3.2% in February from a year earlier, far below a year-over-year peak of 9.1% in June 2022.
Yet the sharply higher borrowing costs for individuals and companies that resulted from the Fed's rate hikes were widely expected to trigger a recession, with waves of layoffs and a painful rise in unemployment. Yet to the surprise of just about everyone, the economy has kept growing steadily and employers have kept hiring at a healthy pace. Layoffs remain low.