WASHINGTON – The U.S. unemployment rate held steady at 4.1 percent in March as the pace of job creation picked up drastically, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said in its monthly jobs report April 7. Even with the strong growth in jobs, the unemployment rate was unchanged from February, with both months just a tick up from the 30-year low of 4 percent reached in January.
Payrolls outside the farm sector grew by 416,000 – the largest number since 454,000 jobs were created in February 1996 – the Labor Department said, exceeding market expectations of a 376,000 gain. The number of employed people was 14.9 million – a labor force participation rate of 67.4 percent – down slightly from February’s 141.2 million figure. Average hourly earnings – a key gauge of wage pressures that is closely watched by the inflation-wary Federal Reserve – rose 0.4 percent to $13.60.
The department said the March jobs gain had been inflated by the addition of some 117,000 temporary workers hired to help conduct the 2000 Census. Further boosting the figure was a calendar anomaly, by which the March report covered a period of five weeks rather than the usual four weeks. That added between 50,000 and 100,000 jobs.
The department said the payrolls increase had also been increased by the return to work of some 15,000 aircraft workers who had been on strike in February.
"Taking all of this into account, the increase in nonfarm payroll employment in March is probably roughly in line with the average monthly gain for 1999," BLS Commissioner Katharine Abraham said in a statement. Payrolls growth had been particularly slow in February. The department revised that figure down to a gain of a mere 7,000 jobs, far below the already modest first estimate of 43,000.