Disappointing March jobs report

Maybe all that crazy winter weather in the Midwest and the East had an effect on the economy after all, just like it did in the first quarter last year. There is a bump in the road in jobs numbers every first quarter, so I would not read too much into this jobs report. Let’s see how the second quarter goes.

Steve Benen has the monthly jobs report for March. March job totals fall short, hot streak cools:

Clearly, we were getting a little spoiled. After 12 consecutive months of very strong job numbers, an unemployment rate that was falling fast, and the strongest domestic job market since the 1990s, it was tempting to assume the economy would stay on a hot streak indefinitely.

Those assumptions were wrong. The new report from Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the U.S. economy added just 126,000 jobs in March, well below projections and below recent averages. The overall unemployment rate remained at 5.5%, which is still a seven-year low.

Making matters slightly worse the revisions from January and February were lowered, too. The news wasn’t all bad — wages are up, which is encouraging — but on balance, this is the worst jobs report since late 2013.

All told, the U.S. has added 3.13 million jobs over the last 12 months. The streak of 12 consecutive months of job growth over 200,000 has been snapped. That said, March was the 54th consecutive month of positive job growth — the best stretch since 1939 — and the 59th consecutive month in which we’ve seen private-sector job growth, which is the longest on record.