A closely watched report released by the Labor Department on Friday showed employment in the U.S. shot up by much more than expected in the month of March.
The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment spiked by 303,000 jobs in March after surging by a downwardly revised 270,000 jobs in February.
Economists had expected employment to jump by 200,000 jobs compared to the addition of 275,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
The much stronger than expected job growth partly reflected notable increases in employment in the healthcare and government sectors, which added 81,300 jobs and 71,000 jobs, respectively.
Employment in the leisure and hospitality and construction sectors also saw continued growth, climbing by 49,000 jobs and 39,000 jobs, respectively.
“The strong and broad-based pace of job creation in March topped all estimates and underscores the Fed will be in no hurry to start cutting interest rates,” said Nationwide Chief Economist Kathy Bostjancic.
“However, as Chairman Powell has indicated, the robust increase in employment will not preclude an easing of monetary policy since in part it reflects an increase in labor supply,” she added. “If inflation readings moderate as we forecast, we still see the Fed cutting rates starting in July.”
The report also said the unemployment rate edged down to 3.8 percent in March from 3.9 percent in February, while economists had expected the unemployment rate to come in unchanged.
The unexpected dip by the unemployment rate came as the household survey measure of employment soared by 498,000 persons, slightly outpacing the 469,000 person surge in the size of the labor force.
The Labor Department also said average hourly employee earnings rose by $0.12 or 0.3 percent to $34.69 in March.
Meanwhile, the annual rate of wage growth slowed to 4.1 percent in March from 4.3 percent in February, in line with estimates.
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