Working Thoughts

• Analysts expected an overall gain of 192,000
  
• Private sector payrolls increased by 230,000

• Private service producing industries added 199,000 (152,000 last month)
  
• Goods producing industries gained 31,000 (70,000 last month)




• February was revised to a gain of 194,000 from an original reading of 192,000
• January was revised to a gain of 68,000 from a revision of 63,000 and an original reading of a 36,000 gain
  
• Payroll processor ADP reported an employment gain of 201,000 jobs
  

• 49% of the 208,000 ADP reported gain came from small business (firms with less than 50 employees). It was 46% last month
• The last four months average an increase of 211,000 jobs. The prior four months saw an average increase of 74,000 jobs
  




• 6.1 million people have been jobless for more than 6 months (long term
  unemployed) – up from 6.0 million last month and down from 6.5 million in March 2010
  
  • 45.5% of the unemployed
    are long term unemployed
    
• Employers
  announced plans to cut 41,528 jobs in March. It was 50,702 jobs in February and 57,724 in March 2010
  

Unemployment rate dropped to 8.8%

• Analysts predicted it would remain at 8.9%
• Since November 2010 the unemployment rate has dropped 1%
  
• The labor force
  participation rate is 64.2% (66.5% is average to good) – unchanged
  
• The employment to population ratio is 58.5% – up from 58.4%
  
• The
  U-6
  report, which is a broader group to count (workers who are part
  time but want to be full time and discouraged worker), dropped to 15.7% from 15.9% last month and from 16.7% in December 2010
  
• PMI,
  a measure of manufacturing pace, is 61.2% and the 22th consecutive
  month of readings over 50 percent. Anything above 50% means the
  machines are running
• Service
  sector activity dropped to 57.3%, down from 59.7% last month. An unexpected drop when compared to other improvements. It was the
  16th straight month of growth
  

Specific Segment Job numbers:

• Manufacturing gained 17,000 jobs
  
• Construction lost 1,000 jobs
  
• Retailers lost 17,700 jobs
  
• Leisure and Hospitality Services gained 37,000 jobs
  
• Government sector lost 14,000, all state or local
  
• Education and Health Services grew by 45,000 jobs

• Health Care and Social Assistance grew by 44,500
  

• Professional and Business Services grew by 78,000

• 28,800 jobs gained in Temporary Help
  

Wage (can be revised):

• The
  average weekly paycheck (seasonally
  adjusted) is $648.48 –
  
• The average hourly earning (seasonally adjusted) is $19.30 – down 2 cents from last month
  
• Average
  weekly hours and overtime of production and nonsupervisory employees on
  private nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted is
  33.6 hours, up slightly from 33.5 last month and 33.4 in January 2011
• 6.3% of hourly-paid workers in Pennsylvania earned the minimum wage or less in 2010
• 9.5% of hourly-paid workers in Texas earned the minimum wage or less in 2010
  

Bureau of Labor Statistics