1 of 2 | Federal data show non-farm payrolls increased by 236,000 in March, down from the
326,000 additions during the private month. Payroll processor ADP says labor data show the U.S. economy is slowing down. File photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI |
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April 7 (UPI) -- The Labor Department reported Friday that non-farm payrolls increased by 236,000 in March, some 90,000 fewer than in February as the U.S. economy slows down.
Payrolls in March were down from the 326,000 additions from February, though the overall unemployment rate remains relatively unchanged at 3.5%, data show. The number of people without a job for 27 weeks or longer was stable, though those returning to the workforce declined by 182,000 to 1.7 million last month.
Friday's report marked the third one this week showing a downturn in hiring. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, showed job openings fell to a two-year low to 9.9 million as of the last day of February.
Payroll processor ADP, meanwhile, showed private-sector employees added 100,000 fewer jobs to their payrolls in March than they did the prior month.
"Our March payroll data is one of several signals that the economy is slowing," said Nela Richardson, the chief economist at ADP. "Employers are pulling back from a year of strong hiring and pay growth, after a three-month plateau, is inching down."
Higher lending rates from the U.S. Federal Reserve are designed to slow consumer-level inflation. Inflation is running at around 6% annually, about three times high as the Fed's target rate of 2%, but is well below levels near 10% from last year.
That's good news for consumers, though slowing the economy also runs the risk of curbing employment and crashing the economy into a recession.
Recent concerns about the health of the global financial sector, meanwhile, only added to lingering economic worries. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's snapshot GDPNow forecast points to a first quarter expansion of 1.5%, compared with 2.6% for the fourth quarter.
James Bullard, the head of the St. Louis Fed, said Thursday that inflation was still too high, but the risks in the finance sector are not as severe as the global recession from 2007-09 and the mini-recession at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trading was thinned in observance of Good Friday. The Dow was flat at the 9:30 a.m. EDT open in New York. The tech-heavy NASDAQ was up 0.76%, while the S&P 500 was up 0.36% at the start of the trading day.
