US economy added just 236,000 jobs in March

Minneapolis: US employers added just 236,000 jobs in March, coming in below expectations and indicating that the labour market is cooling off amid the Federal Reserve's year-long rate-hiking campaign to chill inflation, CNN Business reported.

The unemployment rate dropped to 3.5 per cent, according to the March jobs report released on Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists were expecting a net gain of 239,000 jobs for the month and a jobless rate of 3.6 per cent, according to Refinitiv. This is the first jobs report in 12 months that came in below expectations, CNN Business said. While the US labour market has kept trucking along despite other areas of the economy slowing under the weight of interest rate hikes, it is showing some signs of cooling, it added.

"The labour market in March came in like a lion with a banking crisis and more layoffs, and is going out like a lamb with a solid jobs report," said Daniel Zhao, Glassdoor's lead economist, in a statement. "The labour market is still strong, but it's gliding slowly back down to Earth."
Over the past 12 months, the labour market has seen a net gain of more than 4.1 million jobs, averaging 345,417 jobs gained, per month, helping drop the unemployment rate to decades-low levels, CNN Business said.

March's total is a notable reduction from February's upwardly revised 326,000 jobs gained and January's monster jobs number -- originally 517,000 but subsequently revised down to 472,000.

The 236,000 jobs added during March is the smallest monthly gain since a decline in December 2020, according to CNN Business. Excluding the losses seen during the first year of the pandemic, it's the smallest monthly jobs gain since December 2019.

However, the job market remains above pre-pandemic norms: Between 2010 and 2019, the economy added an average of 183,000 jobs a month.

President Joe Biden called the March employment report a "a good jobs report for hard-working Americans," in a statement released on Friday morning.

CNN Business said industries such as leisure and hospitality, health care and government continued to lead the way in job gains.