We are so back?<\/p>\n
After a dour jobs report in February<\/a>, March delivered surprisingly strong gains for the US labor market, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics\u2019 latest employment situation report<\/a>. In fact, March\u2019s job growth marked the highest monthly gains so far for President Trump\u2019s second administration.<\/p>\n However, looking beyond top-line payroll gains, something concerning is brewing within the economy, as people out of work gradually exit the labor market. That could be worrying for employers down the line, should job gains persist, one expert said.<\/p>\n Diving into the data. Employers added 178,000 jobs in March, beating economists\u2019 expectations of 60,000<\/a>. Healthcare, recovering from strikes earlier this winter, led in job growth by industry, adding 76,000 jobs. That was followed by construction, which added 26,00 jobs, and transportation and warehousing, which added 21,000.<\/p>\n Additionally, the topline unemployment rate fell slightly from 4.4% to 4.3% in March. Looking at the topline job gains and unemployment may suggest \u201ca really good report,\u201d Nicole Bachaud, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter, told HR Brew. Looking under the hood, however, shows a different picture. \u201cWhen you look underneath at some of the underlying foundational numbers, it tells a quite different story.\u201d<\/p>\n For people who have a job, the labor market has remained fairly stable. Layoffs have changed little month over month<\/a>, per the BLS\u2019s latest JOLTS data. The employment population ratio for prime working age individuals (ages 25 to 54) has also remained elevated at 80.7%.<\/p>\n