Even with 108,000 fewer jobs, the labor market report for March was still better than the report for February, says Jim Haughey, Newport Communication's senior economist.
"It confirms that the huge 357,000 February job loss was not the start of a worsening trend but the result of bad weather and a partial reversal of January's large job increase."
Jobs fell by 108,000 last month, with the largest losses in temporary help services (48,000), retailing (43,000), K-12 schools (30,000) and durable goods manufacturing (29,000). Trucking and warehousing gained 1,000 jobs, and 7,000 jobs were lost in nondurable manufacturing, the major source of motor freight. A return to seasonal weather boosted construction employment 21,000 following a drop twice that size in February.
Employment has now declined by 505,000 jobs since last August, but as many as 200,000 of those might be recalled military reservists.
Aggregate employee income rose 0.4% in March after no change in February. This is the product of a 0.3% increase in total hours worked in the economy and a 0.1% gain in hourly wages. It's enough to keep consumer spending rising, but cautious consumers are probably adding to savings or cutting debt rather than going to the mall.
The manufacturing job losses are only about half of the expected monthly reductions caused by rapidly rising labor productivity, so factory production may have risen slightly in March. The other large job declines appear to be largely precautionary reductions of part-time low wage workers.
New unemployment claims have risen and more reservists have been called up since the March labor market survey three weeks ago, so another employment decline is likely to be reported for April.
"It confirms that the huge 357,000 February job loss was not the start of a worsening trend but the result of bad weather and a partial reversal of January's large job increase."
Jobs fell by 108,000 last month, with the largest losses in temporary help services (48,000), retailing (43,000), K-12 schools (30,000) and durable goods manufacturing (29,000). Trucking and warehousing gained 1,000 jobs, and 7,000 jobs were lost in nondurable manufacturing, the major source of motor freight. A return to seasonal weather boosted construction employment 21,000 following a drop twice that size in February.
Employment has now declined by 505,000 jobs since last August, but as many as 200,000 of those might be recalled military reservists.
Aggregate employee income rose 0.4% in March after no change in February. This is the product of a 0.3% increase in total hours worked in the economy and a 0.1% gain in hourly wages. It's enough to keep consumer spending rising, but cautious consumers are probably adding to savings or cutting debt rather than going to the mall.
The manufacturing job losses are only about half of the expected monthly reductions caused by rapidly rising labor productivity, so factory production may have risen slightly in March. The other large job declines appear to be largely precautionary reductions of part-time low wage workers.
New unemployment claims have risen and more reservists have been called up since the March labor market survey three weeks ago, so another employment decline is likely to be reported for April.
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