U.S. Job Growth Far Exceeds Estimates In March

(RTTNews) - A closely watched report released by the Labor Department on Friday showed employment in the U.S. surged by much more than expected in the month of March.

The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment jumped by 228,000 jobs in March after climbing by a downwardly revised 117,000 jobs in February.

Economists had expected employment to rise by 135,000 jobs compared to the addition of 151,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.

The stronger than expected job growth partly reflected increases in employment in the healthcare and social assistance and transportation and warehousing sectors.

Retail employment also increased, partially reflecting the return of workers from a strike, while federal government employment declined.

"On the surface, this appears to be a bullish number, but it is important to understand that this is backwards looking data," said Larry Tentarelli, Chief Technical Strategist for Blue Chip Daily Trend Report.

He added, "Markets are going to be much more concerned with incoming, future data, and our concern here is that the higher-than-expected tariffs are going to lead to a major slowdown in hiring and the labor market."

Meanwhile, the report said the unemployment rate crept up to 4.2 percent in March from 4.1 percent in February. The unemployment rate was expected to remain unchanged.

The uptick by the unemployment rate came as the labor force grew by 232,000 persons, slightly outpacing a 201,000 person increase by the household survey measure of employment.

The Labor Department also said average hourly employee earnings rose by 9 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $36.00 in March.

Average hourly employee earnings in March were up by 3.8 percent compared to the same month a year ago, reflecting a slowdown from the 4.0 percent jump in February.