The March jobs report was another disappointment with fewer jobs than expected.
431,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were added in March, CNBC reported.
Amid soaring inflation and worries about a looming recession, the U.S. economy added slightly fewer jobs than expected in March as the labor market grew increasingly tighter.
Nonfarm payrolls expanded by 431,000 for the month, while the unemployment rate was 3.6%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 490,000 on payrolls and 3.7% for the jobless level.
An alternative measure of unemployment, which includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons fell to a seasonally adjusted 6.9%, down 0.3 percentage point from the previous month.
The moves in the jobless metrics came as the labor force participation rate increased one-tenth of a percentage point to 62.4%, to within 1 point of its pre-pandemic level in February 2020. The labor force grew by 418,000 workers and is now within 174,000 of the pre-pandemic state.
CNBC’s Rick Santelli said the March jobs report is a “bit of a mess” with 60,000 fewer jobs created than expected.
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There are also fears of another recession after the yield curve reinverted.
Over the weekend the US bond yield curve inverted briefly for the first time in 16 years since the Great Recession in 2008.
On Thursday the 2-year and 10-year Treasury yields inverted again during trading.