Jobs report fails to meet economists’ expectations.
By Crystal Tsoi
WASHINGTON, DC: The United States economy added a mere 88,000 nonfarm payroll jobs for the month of March, according to a report released by the U.S. Department of Labor on Friday morning, failing to meet expectations of economists who had expected growth at twice the number.
Overall, the private sector added 95,000 jobs last month.
“It is critical that we continue the policies that are helping to build an economy that creates jobs and works for the middle class as we dig our way out of the deep hole that was caused by the severe recession that began in December 2007,” said Alan Krueger, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, on the White House Blog.
According to The New York Times, the shallow drop in unemployment from 7.7 percent in February to 7.6 percent in March was not so much due to more jobs added to the economy but more so because of a lower labor force participation rate–63.3 percent–the lowest it has been since 1979. The number of unemployed stayed relatively the same in the past month at 11.7 million.
These released data should be taken in consideration with the sequester, Krueger noted in his blog post, which can be seen as an overall “headwind” to the previous economic recovery “traction” before the cuts to government services.
“The monthly employment and unemployment figures can be volatile, and payroll employment estimates can be subject to substantial revision,” said Krueger. “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report and it is informative to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available.”