SIGNS THAT a robust recovery in the US labour market is finally under way strengthened yesterday as non-farm payrolls rose by 216,000 in March.
The second consecutive month of strong jobs growth, on top of a steady decline in unemployment claims, adds to hope the market has turned the corner almost two years after a deep recession. The March figures give the first clear reading on the health of the labour market after distortions from Christmas, January’s snowstorms and then a rebound in February.
Job-creation should help to support economic growth this year by putting wages in workers’ pockets and compensating for the drag on their spending power from higher oil prices.
The jobless rate fell from 8.9 per cent to a two-year low of 8.8 per cent as 230,000 new private sector jobs offset a 14,000 decline in government workers.
Austan Goolsbee, chairman of Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, said: “The full percentage point drop in the unemployment rate over the past four months is the largest such decline since 1984, and, importantly, it has been driven primarily by increased employment rather than people leaving the labour force.”
Private sector growth was spread across a range of industries. Services led the gains with 78,000 new positions; healthcare and hospitality both added 37,000; manufacturing 17,000; and mining 14,000. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011)
