The U.S. job market kicked off in March, with robust hiring bringing the unemployment rate closer to its pre-pandemic level.
Payrolls grew by 431,000 in March, driven by increased hiring in leisure and hospitality, as well as in professional and business services, the Labor Department said Friday.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.6% from 3.8% the previous month. The rate fell for most demographic groups, but rose slightly for white men and Latino men.
Decreased COVID-19 infections across the country are driving more Americans to work and reducing absenteeism. In March, 2.5 million people said they had been unable to work because their employer closed or lost business due to the pandemic, below 4.2 million in February. And fewer people work remotely, with 10 percent of U.S. employees telecommuting last month because of the pandemic, compared to 13 percent in February.
“We’re still seeing a very tight job market,” Karen Fichuk, general manager of the Randstad North America personnel company, told the Associated Press. He noted that the US now has a record 1.7 jobs open for every unemployed person.
Wage growth remained stable last month, with an average hourly wage rising 5.6% over the past 12 months. This is the fastest growing rate of wage increases in decades, but these gains have lagged behind inflation for almost a year. This year’s prices have risen 8%, the strongest rate of increase since the early 1980s.
With reports from Alain Sherter of CBS News and the Associated Press.
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