The U.S. economy picked up 431,000 new jobs in March as the unemployment rate dropped to a pandemic low of 3.6% from 3.8% last month, marking one of the fastest economic rebounds in decades, according to data released Friday (April 1) from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
February payrolls were revised upward to 750,000 from 678,000. The jobless rate is tracking toward the 50-year low of 3.5% in February 2020, before the pandemic took hold in the U.S., the data show.
Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) forecasted 490,000 new jobs would be added while economists polled by Bloomberg estimated 440,000.
Read more: February Job Growth Beats Forecasts
Although the latest data missed economists’ expectations, the BLS report reflects 11 consecutive months of job gains topping 400,000, which is the longest run for growth since records started being kept in 1939, WSJ reported.
“All the constraints on the labor supply that were prevailing in 2021 have really eased,” Lydia Boussour, an economist at Oxford Economics, told WSJ. That is “a really important factor in driving that next leg of the recovery and getting employment back to where it was before the pandemic.”
It’s expected that as inflation continues taking a larger share of household budgets, coupled with diminishing savings, more people will make their way back to jobs in the months ahead, according to reports.
See also: US Jobless Claims Dip to Lowest Level in 53 Years
Inflation hit 40-year highs over the past few months, with escalating gasoline prices particularly affecting business and consumer confidence.
Employment growth continues in the leisure and hospitality sectors, with a March gain of 112,000 positions. Overall, however, leisure and hospitality employment is down by 1.5 million, or 8.7%, since February 2020. Professional and business services added 102,000 jobs in March, 723,000 higher than in February 2020.
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