196,000 Jobs Added in March

BY JIM TAYLOR, FARMWEEKNOW.COM 

The economy added 196,000 jobs last month.  The March report was released Friday morning by the Labor Department and is a good bump from February’s sub-par numbers, which showed only 20,000 new jobs created.

“The key thing here is that it brings up the first quarter of the year to 180,000 jobs per month average,” said Illinois Farm Bureau Senior Economist Mike Doherty. “We really needed this report to bring that first quarter number up.”

Retail job numbers were down again in March after a weak February.

“We were down 20,000 in February followed by a 12,000 drop in March,” Doherty said during a visit with RFD Today. “Retail is not doing well and, very interestingly, the reports have been that in Chicago, of all the places for hiring into retail, it’s one of the worst of the big metro areas.” 

Manufacturing hiring was also down in March, but the leisure-hospitality sector had another strong month.

“They were way up in this jobs report,” Doherty said. “With Leisure-Hospitality you’re talking hotel and business conferences – they are in that Leisure and Hospitality sector.”

The unemployment rate held steady in March at 3.8 percent.