The United States added 178,000 jobs in March, blowing past expectations and showing a resilient labor market just as the war with Iran began escalating, sending up oil prices.<\/p>\n
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The unemployment rate fell to 4.3% last month, down from 4.4%. The gains were concentrated in health care, construction, transportation and warehousing.<\/p>\n
Despite the outsized headline figure, there were further indications that the job market remains wobbly. Wage growth declined to 3.5% in March from 3.8% in February, falling short of forecasts. <\/p>\n
The payrolls estimate from January was revised upward by 34,000, from 126,000 to 160,000. But February\u2019s number was revised down by 41,000 jobs, from -92,000 to -133,000. Combined, U.S. payrolls fell by a net 7,000 over those two months. <\/p>\n
The labor force participation rate, or the share of the overall population either employed or looking for work, fell to its lowest level since November of 2021. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile this month\u2019s jobs report delivered an upside surprise, we continue to believe that risks to the labor market remain elevated and higher oil prices from the Iran conflict could prove an additional impediment in the months ahead,\u201d Scott Helfstein, head of investment strategy at Global X financial group, said in a note to clients. <\/p>\n
Surveys conducted by the BLS for this report were completed by March 12. At the time, the full brunt of the war \u2014 for which President Donald Trump has laid out an uncertain timeline \u2014 had yet to hit the job market.<\/p>\n
Three weeks later, gasoline prices have surged to more than $4 a gallon<\/a>, a level that, if it is sustained, would sap U.S. consumers of hundreds of dollars in annual discretionary income. <\/p>\n On Wednesday, the Atlanta Federal Reserve lowered its real-time gross domestic product estimate<\/a> to 1.9%, down from more than 3% just before the start of the war.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, the BLS reported<\/a> the hiring rate in February fell to just 3.1% of the U.S. workforce, a level last recorded in April 2020, as the Covid pandemic bore down. And it’s only slightly above the 2.8% hiring rate recorded during the depths of the 2007-09 Great Recession. <\/p>\n Job openings also fell in February, though they appear to be stabilizing overall. The rate of layoffs also remains at an all-time low<\/a>. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, many Americans\u2019 views of the economy and Trump\u2019s handling of it continue to sink to new depths. <\/p>\n On Wednesday, a CNN poll found <\/a>that just 31% of respondents approve of how Trump is managing U.S. economic performance, with just 27% saying they approve of his handling of inflation, down from 44% a year ago. His overall approval rating appears to have stabilized at about 35%.<\/p>\n A debate is now underway about how many jobs the U.S. would need to add each month to keep the unemployment rate \u2014 4.3% as of Friday \u2014 stable. <\/p>\n Over the past year, a massive reduction in overall immigration to the U.S., coupled with a growing number of baby boomers leaving the workforce, means fewer overall jobs need to be created for the economy to absorb newcomers to the labor force and keep the overall unemployment rate stable, according to economists with the Dallas Federal Reserve. <\/p>\n That overall number of new jobs needed is known as the \u201cbreakeven\u201d employment rate. Whereas in the past, it might have required hundreds of thousands of new positions per year to keep the unemployment rate steady and accommodate new entrants, the economists wrote in a note published this week<\/a> that the breakeven employment rate now may be close to zero. <\/p>\n If the overall workforce continues to shrink, fewer new jobs will be needed to incorporate workers entering the labor force, such as recent college graduates or parents who put their careers on hold for a few years. <\/p>\n As long as that dynamic remains in force, the number of net new jobs that need to be added to keep the U.S. economy growing each month will remain lower than it would be if lots of immigrants were arriving in the country or fewer workers were retiring.<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/260402-US-Employment-Report-vsb-2126-aa1a90.jpg\")
A construction worker at a new building in Pasadena, Calif.Mario Tama \/ Getty Images file<\/p>\n