Another month, another BLS report…and yet another hit to the U.S. job market
Today’s post on the employment situation report from March is going to have to be short, because, well, there really isn’t anything good to say about it. March’s drop in payroll numbers hurts, and if we’re building off of my masterful analogy from last month…it sort of feels like someone whacked that bruise with a baseball bat, taking both legs out from under the U.S. economy in the process.
Basically, the nation lost 80,000 jobs in March. The payroll numbers from January and February have both (unsurprisingly) been revised downward, making for a total three-month loss of 232,000 positions. That isn’t the most encouraging way to start off a new year. The national unemployment rate finally reflected these losses, rising from 4.8 to 5.1 percent in March alone. Unemployment rates rose in most of the country’s demographic categories as well, including adult men and women, Hispanics, blacks, and whites.
So where did all these nasty numbers come from? Well, that’s an easy enough question to answer. Jobs in construction? Declined by over 50,000. The manufacturing industry? Another 48,000 positions lost. Professional and business services? Cut 35,000 jobs. To be fair, a large part of the deficit in manufacturing positions was due to a strike in the auto parts sector. However, it isn’t as though the other numbers look any better standing alone.
The health care industry somehow managed to add 23,000 jobs in March. Food services tacked on another 23,000 positions as well. I find it interesting (and a tad bit disheartening) that BLS officials felt the need to tout increased employment in the mining industry as another highlight from March. The sector gained 6,000 jobs last month. But hey, I guess it’s better than a loss.
Based on my personal threshold for depressing statistics, I think that’s a sufficient amount of bad news to tide you over until next month, or at least next week, if you’re the type who’s able to bounce back quickly. (And by saying that, I’m implying that you’re able to disregard serious economic problems within the span of just a few days…and that maybe something is wrong with you.) The average workweek edged upward to reach 33.8 hours in March, and our hourly earnings increased by five cents to place the average American worker’s weekly salary at $603.67. I figured I’d at least leave you with that: we’ve broken the $600 mark people. And don’t forget, it’s Friday, so you’ve got the entire weekend to try and forget you ever read this post. Me? I’ve got another month ahead of me to hope that these employment reports get a little easier to write about.