162,000 Jobs Created in March, Unemployment Rate Steady at 9.7%

[tritsofme]

Fairly disappointing, many were anticipating a much higher number, something in the range of 200-300k. It is generally accepted that it takes 125,000 to 150,000 jobs created each month just to keep pace with population growth.

Transmission of material in this release is embargoed USDL-10-0394
until 8:30 a.m. (EDT) Friday, April 2, 2010

Technical information:
Household data: [phone] * [e-mail] * www.bls.gov/cps
Establishment data: [phone] * [e-mail] * www.bls.gov/ces

Media contact: [phone] * [e-mail]


THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION -- MARCH 2010


Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 162,000 in March, and the unemployment
rate held at 9.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
Temporary help services and health care continued to add jobs over the month.
Employment in federal government also rose, reflecting the hiring of temporary
workers for Census 2010. Employment continued to decline in financial activi-
ties and in information.

Household Survey Data

In March, the number of unemployed persons was little changed at 15.0 million,
and the unemployment rate remained at 9.7 percent. (See table A-1.)

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (10.0 per-
cent), adult women (8.0 percent), teenagers (26.1 percent), whites (8.8 per-
cent), blacks (16.5 percent), and Hispanics (12.6 percent) showed little or no
change in March. The jobless rate for Asians was 7.5 percent, not seasonally
adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) in-
creased by 414,000 over the month to 6.5 million. In March, 44.1 percent of
unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more. (See table A-12.)

The civilian labor force participation rate (64.9 percent) and the employment-
population ratio (58.6 percent) continued to edge up in March. (See table A-1.)

The number of persons working part time for economic reasons (sometimes re-
ferred to as involuntary part-time workers) increased to 9.1 million in March.
These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back
or because they were unable to find a full-time job. (See table A-8.)

About 2.3 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in March,
compared with 2.1 million a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.)
These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for
work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not
counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks pre-
ceding the survey. (See table A-16.)

Among the marginally attached, there were 1.0 million discouraged workers in
March, up by 309,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.)
Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they be-
lieve no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.3 million persons margin-
ally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks pre-
ceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibili-
ties. (See table A-16.)

Establishment Survey Data

In March, nonfarm payroll employment rose by 162,000. Job growth continued in tem-
porary help services and in health care. Federal government employment increased
due to the hiring of temporary workers for Census 2010. Job losses continued in
financial activities and in information. (See table B-1.)

Temporary help services added 40,000 jobs in March. Since September 2009, tempor-
ary help services employment has risen by 313,000.

Employment in health care continued to increase in March (27,000), with the larg-
est gains occurring in ambulatory health care services (16,000) and in nursing and
residential care facilities (9,000).

In March, employment in mining increased by 8,000. Monthly job gains in mining
have averaged 6,000 over the past 5 months.

Employment in federal government was up over the month, reflecting the hiring of
48,000 temporary workers for the decennial census.

Manufacturing employment continued to trend up in March (17,000); the industry has
added 45,000 jobs in the first 3 months of 2010. Over the month, job gains were
concentrated in fabricated metal products (9,000) and in machinery (6,000).

Employment in construction held steady (15,000) in March. The industry had lost an
average of 72,000 jobs per month in the prior 12 months.

Over the month, employment changed little in transportation and warehousing,
leisure and hospitality, retail trade, and wholesale trade.

In March, financial activities shed 21,000 jobs, with the largest losses occur-
ring in insurance carriers and related activities (-9,000). Employment in the
information industry decreased by 12,000.

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was up by
0.1 hour to 34.0 hours in March. The manufacturing workweek for all employees
increased by 0.2 hour to 39.9 hours, and factory overtime was up by 0.1 hour
over the month. In March, the average workweek for production and nonsuper-
visory employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 0.2 hour to 33.3
hours. (See tables B-2 and B-7.)

In March, average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls
fell by 2 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $22.47, following a 4-cent gain in February.
Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 1.8 percent. In
March, average hourly earnings of private production and nonsupervisory employ-
ees fell by 2 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $18.90. (See tables B-3 and B-8.)

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for January was revised from
-26,000 to +14,000, and the change for February was revised from -36,000 to
-14,000.

____________
The Employment Situation for April is scheduled to be released on Friday,
May 7, 2010, at 8:30 a.m. (EDT).


http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

[HughBeaumont]

1. Under what was predicted, but still can be regarded as good news for once.

Meets the 150k number needed for incoming-outgoing. More months of numbers like these on and off are what this country needs to rebound.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm damned tired of half-cheerleading doomsdays. Just think of where we were 15 months ago. Digging out of an economic nightmare doesn't happen overnight and we're still not out of the woods, but the trending is better.

[Statistical]

2. Not as good as hoped but still good news.

Now we need another 11 of these in a row.

It will take very long time to "absorb" that 9.7% back into the economy.
It requires roughly 1.5 million NET jobs to reduced U-3 by 1%.

Net jobs would be = jobs created - jobs lost - rise in workforce size

[tritsofme]

3. It's the best report since March 2007.

Definitely a step in the right direction.

[Statistical]

5. Oh I agree but it needs to be sustained.

It will take about a year of 200K average net jobs a month to drop U-3 just 1% (8.7% vs 9.7%).

So it is a step in right direction however govt needs to make sure that we get a lot of steps in a row all going the same way.

[ixion]

4. anemic growth is the new black

and watch for these numbers to be revised downward.

[tritsofme]

6. There were positive revisions to January and February today

From 26,000 to +14,000 and -36,000 to -14,000 respectively.

It would not surprise me to see the final number for this month be considerably higher.

[dmallind]

9. Why downward? Seeing many more upward revisions lately. NT

[ixion]

10. If they are, that's great.

I'm still a pessimist on growth these days.

[KG]

7. i applied 35 places in march

nada.

[dmallind]

11. That was about my rate too - exactly 400 applications in 10mos.

Of course it only takes one, but waiting for that one is a bugger. I expect to see see slow but steady growth in hiring so there's still more chances out there coming.

[BailoutBill]

8. Not seeing any help

around these parts.

[Kingofalldems]

12. Yeah, but but but er ah

[oregondemoc]

13. a step in the positive direction

The negative trends are gone. Bush screwed up badly. It was going to take a while to recover but thankfully we are seeing positive signs now.