(BLS) The total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 431,000 in March, with job gains posted in multiple sectors.
The unemployment rate fell by 0.2% to a lower 3.6% in March. Coinciding with the fall in unemployment was a 318,000 decline in unemployed persons to 6.0 million. At 3.6%, the unemployment rate was at its lowest since February 2020.
The number of permanent job losers plunged by 191,000 to 1.4 million in March, slightly higher than the pre-pandemic level of 1.3 million.
The labor force participation rate remained largely unchanged at 62.4% in March, while the employment-population ratio improved by 0.2% to 60.1%.
The number of persons not in the labor force but currently want a job was 5.7 million in March, up by 382,000.
The NFP payroll numbers and unemployment rate underscored a strong momentum in the job market amid an economy strained by high inflation and Ukrainian war headwinds. The data is now expected to cool fears of a recession after a brief inversion of the US 10-year Treasury yield curve this week.
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