March job gains make up for February losses – trend remains notably weak
Below, EPI senior economist Elise Gould offers her insights on the jobs report released this morning. Read the full thread here.
Today’s jobs report came in stronger than expected with an increase of 178,000 to payroll employment. However, much of the gain was a bounce back to February declines (now a loss of 133,000 jobs). As a result, average monthly growth the last two months was only 22,500 jobs.
#NumbersDay #EconSky
— Elise Gould (@elisegould.bsky.social) Apr 3, 2026 at 8:41 AM
On the household side, the unemployment rate ticked down slightly to 4.3%. However, it's important to note that this happened for the "wrong" reasons as both the labor force participation and the share of the population with a job also ticked down.
#EconSky— Elise Gould (@elisegould.bsky.social) Apr 3, 2026 at 8:51 AM
On the household side, the unemployment rate ticked down slightly to 4.3%. However, it’s important to note that this happened for the “wrong” reasons as both the labor force participation and the share of the population with a job also ticked down.
#EconSky<
[image or embed]— Elise Gould (@elisegould.bsky.social) Apr 3, 2026 at 8:51 AM
Payroll employment is experiencing large swings month to month, not surprising between February and March given weather and striking workers returning to the job. To get a better sense of the jobs picture, best to look at a smoothed series. Here we see three-month average growth at 68k.
#EconSky— Elise Gould (@elisegould.bsky.social) Apr 3, 2026 at 8:51 AM
Overall job gains were 178k in March after a -133k loss in February. Job gains were strongest in health care as striking workers returned to work. Gains also noted in leisure and hospitality as well as construction. Job losses in the federal government as well as financial activities.
#NumbersDay— Elise Gould (@elisegould.bsky.social) Apr 3, 2026 at 8:57 AM
Attacks on the federal workforce continue (down 18k jobs in March). Federal employment has shrunk an alarming 352k jobs since Jan 2025. The vital services federal employees provide cannot be done without these essential workers. The cost of these losses are only just beginning.
#EconSky #NumbersDay— Elise Gould (@elisegould.bsky.social) Apr 3, 2026 at 9:01 AM
Manufacturing rose 15,000 jobs in March, but still has a huge deficit since Trump took office. Since January 2025, the manufacturing sector has lost 82,000 jobs.
#EconSky #NumbersDay
— Elise Gould (@elisegould.bsky.social) Apr 3, 2026 at 9:05 AM
Folks, today's jobs report is not good. Avg job growth over the last two months was just 22,500. The March drop in unemp was people leaving the labor force—not finding jobs. Wage growth slowed, esp for nonsupervisory workers.
And the effects of our war in Iran aren’t even in these numbers yet.
— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz.bsky.social) Apr 3, 2026 at 9:34 AM
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