The U.S. economy gained 215,000 jobs in March, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says in its monthly report.
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The unemployment rate rose slightly to 5 percent, up from 4.9 percent in the month before.
The White House said in a blog post after the report's release that "the private sector has now added 14.4 million jobs over 73 straight months of job growth, the longest streak on record, and wage growth has accelerated over the past year."
It adds: "More work remains to drive even faster wage growth."
The Bureau of Labor Statics revised January's jobs gains downward, to 168,000 from 172,000. February's figures were revised upward, to 245,000 from 242,000.
In total, "employment gains in January and February combined were 1,000 less than previously reported," the report states.
Aggregate weekly earnings are the total wages and salaries paid to all private employees on nonfarm payrolls. Changes in aggregate earnings can be driven by changes in employment, by changes in the length of the average workweek, or by changes in hourly earnings.
Aggregate earnings reached a cyclical trough in December 2009. Over the following year-and-a-half, the increase in aggregate earnings was more than accounted for by a combination of rising employment and a longer workweek, as real wages declined.
Over the next three years, increased employment accounted for over 80 percent of the growth in aggregate earnings.
Conversely, over the past two years real wage growth—due both to rising nominal wages and to slow inflation as oil prices have declined—has been the main contributor to the speed-up in aggregate earnings, accounting for over 40 percent of overall real aggregate earnings growth.
Meanwhile, strong employment growth has continued, offset slightly by reductions in hours.
Since late 2007, women’s usual weekly earnings have grown at a slightly faster pace than those of men, and the weekly earnings gap has narrowed as a result. The ratio of women’s usual weekly earnings to men’s was 80.8 percent at the end of 2015, up from 79.5 percent at the end of 2007.
The labor force participation rate rose to 63.0 percent in March, the same level as in November 2013, having risen 0.6 percentage point over the last six months.
Above-average gains relative to the past year were seen in industries such as State and local government (+18,000), retail trade (+48,000), and construction (+37,000).
Manufacturing (-29,000) had a noticeably weak month in March, while employment in mining and logging, which includes oil extraction, continued to decline (-12,000). ■