Despite a slowdown in employment creation in March, the United States economy continued to develop at a robust clip, helped along by a surge in hiring at bars and restaurants.
According to the Labor Department’s monthly payroll report, which was issued on Friday, employers added 236,000 jobs in March, largely in line with the 239,000 jobs expected by Refinitiv analysts. The labor force participation rate rose to its greatest level before the epidemic started, while the unemployment rate decreased slightly to 3.5%.
It was the smallest monthly increase in employment since December 2020.
Despite the fact that job growth last month was widespread, the leisure and hospitality industry, which was the most impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, took the lead in recruiting with an additional 72,000 employees. The majority of the improvements came from the hiring of 50,300 new employees in bars and restaurants in March. Payrolls at hotels increased by 5,200, while 10,900 new employees were hired by entertainment, gaming, and recreational establishments.
The number of people employed in the leisure and hospitality sector is still 368,000 below pre-pandemic levels or around 2.2%.
Government hiring increased by 47,000 last month, another significant factor in creating jobs in March. In the sector, municipal governments (26,000) and state governments had significant hiring increases (13,000).
Several sectors had increases in employment as well last month, including health care (33,900), social support (16,900), private education (14,600), and transportation and warehousing (10,400).
These gains assisted in offsetting decreases in the retail industry, which shed 14,600 employees in March. The decline in furniture stores (8,700) and food and beverage merchants was the cause of those losses (6,400). The hiring of 14,800 new employees by department retailers last month, however, somewhat countered those decreases.
Another factor contributing to the positive jobs report was hiring in the professional and business services sectors. A total of 39,000 new employees were added to the sector in March, with administrative and support services (13,300), management, scientific, and technical consulting services (7,600), and accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping, and other payroll services (5,800) seeing the largest increases. Tax season ends on April 18 and the hiring period will last through May 1.
