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Employers Added Just 98,000 Jobs in March Below Expectations of 180,000 (usatoday.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-things-are-moving dept.

Employers slowed their pace of hiring while the unemployment rate fell to the lowest level in almost a decade in March, highlighting steady but sometimes mixed progress across the labor market. From a report on USA Today: Payroll growth weakened significantly last month amid harsher winter weather as employers added 98.000 jobs in a sharper pullback than anticipated. The unemployment rate, which is calculated from a different survey, fell to 4.5% from 4.7%, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg projected 180,000 employment gains, based on their median estimate. Analysts expected some payback in March after unseasonably mild temperatures pulled forward hiring to early in the year, especially in sectors such as construction, resulting in 200,000-plus job gains in January and February. And a snowstorm that slammed into the Midwest and East Coast in mid-March likely further curtailed job growth, says economist Jim O'Sullivan of High Frequency Economics. [...] But some economists also have said the outsize job gains early this year defied a low unemployment rate that's supplying businesses a shrinking pool of available workers. Many analysts expect that trend ultimately to result in average monthly job gains of about 170,000 this year, down from 187,000 last year and 226,000 in 2015.

5 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. We need more H1B's* to fill the gaps by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We need more H1B's* to fill the gaps

    or someone willing to work 60-80 hours a week in the bay area for 60K

    1. Re:We need more H1B's* to fill the gaps by Nidi62 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      At a point, being wealthier doesn't really help you, because you buy all these toys but you work all the time and don't have any leisure hours to play with them.

      You don't buy all those toys to play with them. You buy all those toys because someone else at the country club bought them, and because Bob down the street doesn't own them and you want him to be jealous. Or did you think they actually used those extra 2 kitchens and 4 bedrooms, or the Olympic sized swimming pool with waterfall and and built-in grill that would give Bobby Flay wet dreams? That's why they have to lease the newest Range Rover, Porsche, or BMW every 2 years. Once you reach a certain threshold, toys aren't meant to be used, they're meant to be seen.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    2. Re:We need more H1B's* to fill the gaps by swillden · · Score: 4, Insightful

      efficiency improvements would normally lead to sharp population expansion

      Huh? Humans are not rabbits. All evidence shows that the wealthier we get, the fewer children we have.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  2. This Thread, Pre-Russian Troll by notsteve · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's so interesting to see these threads in virgin form, before the Russian trolls assigned to Slashdot descend.

  3. Some data to understand that number by whitroth · · Score: 3, Interesting

    About 8 or 10 years ago, and this was the *only* time I heard it, not since, the US economy needs to add about 128k jobs per month, for the number of people entering the workforce over those leaving it.