US jobs report for March offers up some surprising numbers

U.S. employers added a surprising 228,000 jobs last month, as the American labor market continues to show resilience as President Donald Trump wages trade wars, purges federal workers and deports immigrants working in the U.S. illegally. At the same time, the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.2%.

The hiring numbers were up from 117,000 in February and were nearly double the 130,000 that economists had expected. Labor Department revisions shaved 48,000 jobs off January and February payrolls.

Workers’ average hourly earnings rose 0.3% from February, about what economists had expected. Compared to a year earlier, hourly pay was up 3.8%, a bit lower than the 4% that had been forecast and nearing the 3.5% year-over-year gains that are seen as consistent with the Federal Reserve’s 2% annual inflation target.

Health care companies added almost 54,000 jobs and restaurants and bars nearly 30,000 as the job market bounced back from bitter winter weather in January and February. The federal government lost 4,000, a sign that Elon Musk’s purge of the federal workforce may only be starting to show up in the data.

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