U.S. economy adds 178K jobs in March, unemployment rate dips slightly to 4.3%
Speakers
Deirdre Bosa -- Host, Squawk Box
— CNBC anchor, tech reporter
Andrew Ross Sorkin -- Host, Squawk Box
— CNBC Squawk Box host
Summary
- The March jobs report showed a headline number of 178,000, significantly stronger than the 65,000 expectation.
- However, the previous two months were revised down by -133,000, with January's revision being particularly sharp.
- Key internals were soft: Average Hourly Earnings rose only 0.2%, missing the 0.3% forecast, marking the lightest monthly gain since last July.
- Year-over-year wage growth slowed to 3.5%, the lowest since May 2021, from a prior 3.8%.
- The Average Workweek dipped to 34.2 hours, a tenth less than expected and the previous month.
- The Unemployment Rate (U3) fell to 4.3%, a surprise drop from the expected 4.4%.
- The Labor Force Participation Rate slipped to 61.9%, matching November 2021 levels.
- The underemployment rate (U6) ticked up to 8.0% from 7.9%.
- Market reaction saw interest rates rise slightly (2-year from 3.81% to 3.85%, 10-year from 4.31% to ~4.35%) while equity futures fell.
- The report data is pre-conflict (referring to Iran tensions), so its relevance may be viewed as historical by some market participants.
- The overall takeaway is a mixed picture: a very solid headline jobs number contrasted with significant downward revisions and soft wage/hourly data.
