Canadian March Employment Rose 19400, Unemployment Rises To 6.7%

The unemployment rate fell for good reasons last month: an increase in people who were employed and a drop in people who were jobless and looking for work.

It’s also dramatically lower than the 235,000 new jobs that were reported in February, the first month of Trump’s presidency.

The retail sector continued to struggle last month. This number declined by 151,000 over the month.

A rate of unemployment under 5% indicates that an economy is in “full employment“. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.7 percent, slightly lower than the 2.8 percent growth in the previous month. That lowered the year-on-year increase in wages to 2.7 per cent. The Labor Department surveys just 60,000 households, out of more than 100 million USA households.

As the number of unemployed workers declines, companies have had to pay more to attract the people they want. The number of discouraged workers was 460,000, down from a year earlier.

However, the unemployment rate remains high for black Americans. Many jobs were listed as self-employment, it added. These national trends definitely hold true in St. Louis, as job growth has been slow, but unemployment has been down, making the area more desirable and hospitable for incoming families.

Professional and business services, however, saw a bright spot. Over the month, job gains occurred in services to buildings and dwellings (+17,000) and in architectural and engineering services (+7,000). The teen unemployment rate fell from 15% in Feb to 13.7%. It was the lowest gain since May 2016 and one of the lowest of the 8-year-old recovery, but the seasonally adjusted net gain still marked the 78th consecutive month of overall job growth. Water transportation employment was flat in March.

Strong employment gains and a falling unemployment rate from March through May could convince the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates again in June, following two hikes since December. Retailers including J.C. Penney Co Inc and Macy’s Inc have announced thousands of layoffs as they shift toward online sales and scale back on brick-and-mortar operations. Other industries showed little change last month, including wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, leisure and hospitality, information, and government.

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was unchanged at 34.3 hours in March.