U.S. Payrolls Rise 162,000 in March

Sarla Buch
02 Apr, 2010
New York City

Employers added 162,000 jobs in March and unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.7%. Private sector added 123,000 jobs and government payrolls increased 48,000. Of the unemployed, 6.5 million or 44% people are jobless more than 27 weeks.

[R]10:40 AM Washington, D.C. – Employers added 162,000 jobs in March and unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.7%. Private sector added 123,000 jobs and government payrolls increased 48,000. Of the unemployed, 6.5 million or 44% people are jobless more than 27 weeks.[/R]

March non-farm payroll employment rose 162,000 but the unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.7%. The temporary hiring picked as U.S. hired staff for Census 2010. Long term unemployment increased by 414,000 to 6.5 million.

In March 44% of the unemployed were jobless for 27 weeks or more according to the latest data released by the Labor Department in Washington.

Average workweek for all employees increased 0.1 hour to 34 hours and manufacturing workweek increased 0.2 hour to 39.9 hours.

In the month, average hourly earnings of all employees declined 2 cents or 0.1% to $22.47 after rising 4 cents in February. In the last twelve months average hourly earnings increased 1.8%.

Private payrolls increased 123,000 in the month and government at all levels hired 39,000. State and local governments cut employment by 9,000 and federal government added 48,000.

Employment in construction was steady in the month with a decline of 15,000. The industry had lost an average of 72,000 jobs a month in the last one year.

Insurance carriers led the decline in jobs in financial services sector with a loss of 9,000 and employment in information sector fell 12,000.

The unemployment rate that includes the involuntary part-time workers increased to 16.9% from 16.8%.

Federal government is expected to add as much as 1.15 million staff to carryout census that occurs once every ten years. Economists are expecting bulk of these hires to occur between April and June.

For the most part, labor economists will be closely monitoring private employment reports to evaluate the changes in the labor market.

Labor Department revised the January unemployment to increase of 14,000 from the previous estimate of decline of 26,000 and the change for February was revised to decline of 14,000 from 36,000.