Analysts Blame "Wacky Weather" For Shortfall in Jobs Number

The US economy added a total of 98,000 jobs in March, well below the consensus estimate of 180,000. The national unemployment rate fell to 4.5%, down from 4.7% in the previous month.

According to analysts, the March miss can largely be attributed to the "wacky weather" that the nation experienced during the month. According to Goldman Sachs, the unusually warm weather likely resulted in as many as 60,000 jobs being trimmed from the numbers.

The number of employed Americans rose from 152,528,000 to 153,000,000 in March, while the number of unemployed fell from 7,528,000 to 7,202,000, a large decrease of 326,000. This resulted in the large 0.2% decrease in the unemployment rate.

The number of Americans "not in the labor force" (meaning, neither officially employed or unemployed) increased from 94,190,000 to 94,213,000 in March, an increase of 23,000 people.

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The unemployment rate for adult men was stable at 4.3%, while the unemployment rate for adult women dropped 0.3% to 4.0%.

Teenagers (16 to 19) saw the largest drop in their unemployment rate in March, as the unemployment rate for teenagers fell from 15.0% to 13.7%.

The U-6 unemployment rate, which is an alternative measure of labor underutilization, fell from 9.2% to 8.9% in March. This rate includes those people who are excluded from the "official" rate, such as those who have part-time jobs but want full-time work and those who have given up on finding jobs.

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President Trump, who has tagged himself the "jobs President", had to deal with the first lacklustre jobs report that has been posted since the start of his Presidency.

There was no mention of the jobs number on President Trump's Twitter feed today, as news of the attack on Syria and President Trump's meeting with Xi Jinping dominated the headlines.

Filed under: General Knowledge