Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 215,000 jobs in March, down from last month’s upwardly revised total of 245,000. The national unemployment rate rose slightly to 5.0 percent.
The services sector added 219,000 jobs, down from 260,000 in February. The majority of new service jobs were in education and healthcare, which added 51,000 jobs. Over the past year, healthcare employment has grown by 503,000 jobs. Retail trade also continued its growth, adding 47,700 jobs during the month.
Goods producing industries shed jobs for the second consecutive month. Manufacturing employment fell by 29,000 amid heavy job losses in the durable goods subsector. The mining and logging industry also continued to shed jobs, falling by 12,000. The mining industry has lost 185,000 jobs since peaking in September 2014. Construction employment continued to be a bright spot among goods producing industries, adding 37,000 jobs. Over the last 12 months, construction employment has increased by 301,000.
The civilian labor force participation rate moved up slightly to 63.0 percent in March. The number of long-term unemployed, those jobless for 27 weeks or more was unchanged at 2.2 million. The number of discouraged workers, those who gave up looking for work was 585,000, down 153,000 from a year ago.
Average hourly earnings grew by 7 cents to $25.43, after a 2 cent decline in February. Year-over-year earnings have grown by 2.3 percent.
Read the BLS release.
