The US added 236,000 jobs in March, falling just short of economists' forecast of 239,000. The job gain was also lower than February's revised gain of 326,000. Despite this, the unemployment rate dropped from 3.6% to 3.5%, which was below economists' forecast for the rate to remain at 3.6%. The labor force participation rate also increased slightly from 62.5% to 62.6%. While construction and retail trade saw a decline in employment, leisure and hospitality saw employment soar by 72,000.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover data showed a decline of 632,000 job openings in February to 9.9 million. However, this is still above the 7 million openings in February 2020 before the pandemic. The report also showed that quits continued to be high at 4.0 million in February, indicating that workers have more control over when and how they switch jobs in the post-pandemic world.
Overall, the March jobs report suggests that nonfarm payroll employment is slowing down, but the labor market is still showing some strength. While the job gain is lower than what the US has seen in the last several months, the unemployment rate is still low and the labor force participation rate is increasing slightly. This indicates that the economy is still robust, despite the slower job growth in March.