On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the economy had added 236,000 jobs in March. It’s a big dip from the months prior, but still a pretty strong boost to the labor market. The unemployment rate also declined slightly to 3.5 percent, a sign that the labor market as a whole remains robust despite high-profile layoffs in certain industries.
The jobs report sends a couple different messages. For job seekers in several fields, it’s an indication that there’s still solid growth in the number of available opportunities and that they should be able to command higher wages than they historically might have. Particularly in sectors like hospitality and health care, which continue to have outstanding demand, workers are in a strong position.
“Based on the things we would look at to say whether people could find good jobs with good wages on good terms, this is still a very strong labor market,” says Mike Konczal, a director of macroeconomic analysis at the Roosevelt Institute.
When it comes to the health of the economy overall, the jobs report also doesn’t point to a recession in the near term, experts tell Vox. “There are just no signs of recession to me in this report. It’s very strong,” says Heidi Shierholz, the president of the Economic Policy Institute.
Overall, the jobs report signals that there is some cooling in the economy, but that key factors like unemployment remain in a solid place. “We are seeing clear slowing from the absolutely mind-boggling fast job growth that we had been seeing a year ago,” says Shierholz. “But it is still very strong. It is cooling but strong.”
A dip in jobs added suggests some slowing
Recent data, including the jobs report, shows some slowing in the labor market, though it follows a period of intense demand for workers.
The influx of 236,000 jobs in March was much lower than that in February, when 310,000 jobs were added to the economy, and in January, when 517,000 jobs were added…
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