by Calculated Risk on 4/05/2024 08:30:00 AM

From the BLS:

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 303,000 in March, and the unemployment rate changed little at 3.8 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, government, and construction.
...
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for January was revised up by 27,000, from +229,000 to +256,000, and the change for February was revised down by 5,000, from +275,000 to +270,000. With these revisions, employment in January and February combined is 22,000 higher than previously reported.
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

The first graph shows the jobs added per month since January 2021.

Total payrolls increased by 303 thousand in March.  Private payrolls increased by 232 thousand, and public payrolls increased 71 thousand.

Payrolls for January and February were revised up 22 thousand, combined.

The second graph shows the year-over-year change in total non-farm employment since 1968.

In March, the year-over-year change was 2.93 million jobs.  Employment was up solidly year-over-year.

The third graph shows the employment population ratio and the participation rate.

The Labor Force Participation Rate was increased to 62.7% in March, from 62.5% in February. This is the percentage of the working age population in the labor force.

The Employment-Population ratio increased to 60.3% from 60.1% (blue line).

I'll post the 25 to 54 age group employment-population ratio graph later.

The fourth graph shows the unemployment rate.

The unemployment rate decreased to 3.8% in March from 3.9% in February.

This was well above consensus expectations; and January and February payrolls were revised up by 22,000 combined.  

I'll have more later ...