The Morning with Maria panel reacts to the March jobs report, Fed rate cut expectations, inflation, AI stocks, and Biden’s 2025 budget proposal.
The U.S. economy continued its strong job growth in March, as strong health care and government employment boosted overall payrolls.
Employers added 303,000 jobs in March, easily beating the 200,000 increase expected by economists at LSEG, according to the Labor Department’s monthly payroll report released Friday. The unemployment rate fell slightly to 3.8% from 3.9% in February.
“Gains were once again primarily driven by a small number of sectors, including healthcare, government, leisure and hospitality. These sectors are less susceptible to rising interest rates, have maintained demand during recessions, and have been able to sustain demand post-pandemic. “We are facing a severe labor shortage,” said Noah Yosif, chief economist at the American Staffing Association.
US economy adds 303,000 jobs in March, bigger than expected
“We’re Hiring” sign at the NC Works Career Center on March 7, 2024 in Wilmington, North Carolina. (Photographer: Alison Joyce/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
The health care sector had the largest increase in payrolls in March, adding 72,300 jobs last month. Employment continues to trend upward in physician practices (5,100), home health services (11,700), hospitals (27,100), and nursing/residential care facilities (17,700).
There was also a significant increase in government salaries last month, with 71,000 people increasing their salaries. The majority of these jobs were performed within local government (49,000) and state government (13,000). Most of those jobs are in K-12 public schools and public universities.
The leisure and hospitality sector was the third largest contributor to major job gains last month. The industry hired 49,000 employees in March. Most of the increase occurred in bars and restaurants, which employed 28,300 workers, but there were also salary increases in the entertainment, gambling and recreation industry (9,600) and performing arts and spectator sports (7,000). .
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Other industries also saw notable increases, including construction (39,000 jobs) and retail (17,600 jobs).
However, employment in March proved lackluster outside these sectors of the economy.
The social assistance sector hired 9,000 workers in March, and wholesale trade saw payroll increase by 8,500. Other salary increases were in financial activities (3,000 people), mining and logging (3,000 people), and transport and warehousing (1,200 people).
“Right now, the economic growth trajectory appears to be resilient, but that’s because many people and businesses are not being adversely affected by the Fed’s interest rate caps,” said Rick Reeder, BlackRock’s chief investment officer. It doesn’t mean anything.” “In fact, high interest rates are hurting the economy in many ways, with low-income groups and cyclical sectors being hit the hardest.”
“We’re Hiring” sign at the NC Works Career Center on March 7, 2024 in Wilmington, North Carolina. (Photographer: Alison Joyce/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
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Employment in some sectors of the economy was flat last month. The number of employees in the information and manufacturing industries remained flat in March.
