With the latest numbers coming out Friday, March’s Job Report and February’s Job Opening Survey have shown surprising results, coming in with yet another month of unexpected growth. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in March, the U.S. economy added 303,000 new Nonfarm payroll jobs. The Federal Reserve assumed that with so many interest rate hikes over the past few years trying to combat inflation, and with pandemic recovery finally coming to a close, the wild growth in the economy would slow down. However, with another spike in the number of new jobs, this does not seem to be the case at all. In what has now become the “new normal” of surprising changes, the stock market has met this report with minimal ups and downs in trading. February’s job opening report saw the number of new jobs decreased by 5,000, a somewhat muted adjustment compared to January’s revision upward by 27,000. Unemployment decreased slightly to 3.8% from 3.9% in February. This means that there are roughly 6.4 million unemployed people in the U.S, with experts still touting these numbers as the lowest in several decades. The number of jobs in the Transportation and Warehouse industries did not appear to make many changes, but we will look more on this below!
February's Job Opening and Turnover Survey
At the end of February, job openings did not change much, falling minimally to 8.8 million jobs. Hires did end up increasing for the finance and insurance industries, with 126,000 new jobs created. State and local government jobs also saw an increase in jobs by roughly 91,000. Even Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation had a job increase of 51,000. Decreases occurred in the Information industry (85,000), Federal Government jobs (21,000), and Manufacturing (44,000). However, with all of these large changes, the overall outlook only saw a decrease of 5,000 new jobs for the entire month of February.
The quit rate and the number of layoffs both stayed roughly the same at 3.5 million and 1.7 million, respectively. While everyone, including the LZBlog team, is continuing to look to the Federal Reserve to see if these revisions will change their mindset on interest rates at the next meeting, we will all continue to monitor these updates more closely for the foreseeable future.
March's Jobs Report
For the month of March, Non-farm payrolls grew by 303,000. Experts believe that this is an indication that the economy is still growing out of post-pandemic economic traumas, but that inflation is finally starting to slow down, which comes as a surprise to those on the outside looking in at these numbers. With the unemployment rate falling back down to 3.8% and wages staying roughly the same, many in the financial industry are heaving huge sighs of relief, and even President Biden has touted these numbers as an indication of inflation beginning to calm. The labor force participation rate, however, remained about the same at 62.7%.
Rounding out the first quarter of 2024, the Healthcare industry saw the largest increases in the number of jobs, adding an additional 72,000 jobs in March, and that is on top of the 67,000 jobs added from February. In Leisure and Hospitality, new jobs came in at 49,000; these numbers bring this industry up to their February 2020, or pre-pandemic, levels. The construction industry also added 39,000 jobs, which is double their normal monthly average. This indicates a building spree on the horizon that could lead to even more jobs. On the other hand, Transportation and Warehousing jobs had only marginal changes in March, with the report stating that it, along with Mining, Wholesale Trade, Information, and Professional and Business Services, “showed little or no change over the month.” The LZBlog will be studying this further as more reports come out to see if the growth in the Construction industry creates a ripple effect in other industries.
Conclusion
The March Jobs Report and the February Job Opening and Turnover Survey came out last week with new surprises. Instead of rising unemployment, now, it looks as if the economy is actually beginning to recover from nearly three years of rampant inflation. With the Federal Reserve holding on to any further interest rate hikes, experts are watching the Reserve’s next moves carefully. Today, these numbers are bringing mixed reactions to the stock market, but, since last Friday, stocks are trending upward. Stay tuned to the LZ Blog and our Lionzone social media to see!
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Meaghan Goldberg covers recruitment and digital marketing for Lionzone. A Patterson, GA native, after graduating from both Valdosta State University and Middle Tennessee State University, Meaghan joined Lionzone in 2018 as a digital recruitment strategist before becoming the social media manager.
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