This morning’s dismal jobs report from the government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics says only 88,000 new jobs were created in the U.S. last month, the worst showing last June and far below the 200,000 range economists were anticipating.
“This is very weak labor market,” economist Martin Feldstein told CNBC after the report was issued.
Especially troubling was that the hiring slowdown came after months of growth that averaged almost 200,000. Last June, 87,000 jobs were added, but that was the only time since August 2011 that job growth dipped below 100,000.
Of the few sectors showing significant growth during the month, healthcare and temp were the strongest. Healthcare added 23,400 jobs in March, the majority of them — 15,300 — coming from new hiring in home health care, doctor’s offices, and outpatient facilities. Hospitals added 7,900 jobs.
Temp services grew by 20,300 new jobs; 3,100 fewer than in February, but well above the 14,500 average for all of last year.
SHRM’s Line Report, issued Thursday, predicts April will be a much stronger month for job growth. “In April, the service-sector hiring rate will reach a four-year high for the month, and more than one-third of manufacturers will add jobs,” predicts the monthly hiring survey by the Society for Human Resource Management.
CareerBuilder, which issued a 2nd quarter job forecast, was less aggressive, but still upbeat. It ‘s survey of hiring manager and recruiters found 26% saying they expected to increase in their full-time, permanent headcount this quarter, down from the 30% who said that last year.
However, the picture hasn’t significantly changed when it comes to the use of temps. Last year, 34% of employers said they would be hiring contractors or temps in the second quarter. Now, 32% said they planned to do that. And 24% are planning to transition some contract or temporary staff into permanent employees in the second quarter, the same as last year.
In today’s jobs report, in addition to healthcare and temp, only a few sectors showed increases:
The biggest losers were:
The only good news in the report was that the nation’s unemployment rate came down to 7.6%, a four-year low, and adjustments to the previous job counts for January and February were upped by 61,000. However, even that silver lining came on a dark cloud: nearly half a million workers dropped out of the labor force in March, accounting for much of the decline in the unemployment rate and causing the participation rate — the number of civilians working or actively looking for work — to fall to the lowest level since 1979.
Indeed, the actual numbers of the unemployed didn’t change during the month, according to the report. In March, 11.7 million were counted as officially unemployed, with 4.6 million out of work for more than half a year. The number of part-timers who wanted full-time work but couldn’t find it, declined by 350,000 during the month, leaving 7.6 million on part-time payrolls. Another 2.3 million workers want work, have stopped looking, and so aren’t included in the official count of the unemployed.
The picture to the north in Canada was equally bleak. The nation lost 54,000 jobs in March, its biggest one-month loss in more than four years. The unemployment rate rose to 7.2%, a four-month high.
