Hiring grows at slowest pace since 2013

Employers added 126,000 workers to payrolls in March

E mployers in March added the fewest workers since December 2013 and the jobless rate held at 5.5 percent as companies sought to bring U.S. head counts in line with an economy that throttled back at the start of the year.

The 126,000 increase followed a 264,000 gain a month earlier that was smaller than initially reported, the Labor Department in Washington said. Average hourly earnings rose 2.1 percent from a year earlier.

Companies tempered the pace of the hiring as rough winter weather, tepid overseas markets and a slowdown in energy-related capital investment combined to sting the economy. Even with the moderation in March payrolls, persistent employment opportunities are keeping Americans upbeat and laying the ground for a rebound in spending.

“There’s really no way to sugarcoat this: This is a soft print all the way around, no matter how you slice it,” said Omair Sharif, rates sales strategist at Newedge USA in New York. “It seems that it’s corroborating that the U.S. definitely hit a soft patch in the first quarter.

“Hiring just took a breather in the month of March. I wouldn’t read this as anything other than that. We should get back on track in the second quarter,” he said.

The smaller advance in employment broke a yearlong string of monthly gains exceeding 200,000, which was the longest such stretch since 1995.

Payroll estimates of 98 economists in the Bloomberg survey ranged from gains of 179,000 to 300,000 after a previously reported 295,000 advance. Revisions to prior reports subtracted a total of 69,000 jobs to overall payrolls in the previous two months.

The slowdown in employment was broadbased. Goods producers, including factories, construction firms and the industries that support oil and gas well drilling, cut jobs last month. Manufacturing payrolls dropped for the first time since July

2013 and employment in the leisure and hospitality industries was the weakest since September that same year.

The average work week for all workers fell by six minutes to 34.5 hours. Inclement winter weather may have played a role in reducing hours. The agency said 182,000 people were unable to work because of weather, 41,000 more than the average for March. Another 531,000 people who usually work full time could only find part-time work, up from an average 450,000 for the month.

The March employment report follows a spate of data showing the economy has been cooling. Consumer spending barely rose in February after declining a month earlier, hampered in part by inclement winter weather in parts of the country.

Manufacturing expanded in March at the slowest pace in almost two years, restrained by a stronger dollar, weaker foreign demand, a plunge in oil prices and lingering delays in shipments from West Coast ports.

Figures on car purchases in March indicate consumer spending may be set to pick up. Motor vehicle sales rose in March to a 17.1 million annualized rate, matching the strongest pace since August, based on figures from Ward’s Automotive Group.