The number of Americans who found jobs in March probably won’t match February’s huge 313,000 gain, but it’s not because a red-hot labor market has cooled off.
Here’s what to watch in the March employment report due Friday morning.
Winter giveth, taketh?
The upsurge in job creation in February was aided by unseasonably warm weather that boosted employment in outdoor industries such as construction. And fewer people were prevented from getting to work by wintry conditions.
Typically such an outsized gain is followed by a smaller one. In 2017, for instance, big hiring increases in January and February were followed by a meager 73,000 rise in new jobs in March. The same thing happened in 2015.
Economists polled by MarketWatch forecast a 170,000 increase in net jobs last month.
“Weather effects could play an outsized role in March,” economists at Nomura who forecast an even lower number.
Not to worry, though. The economy appears to have averaged well over 200,000 jobs a month in the first quarter, the best performance since the end of 2015.
