This morning’s employment report for March showed a 98K increase in total nonfarm payrolls. The unemployment rate ticked downward from 4.7% to 4.5%. The Investing.com consensus was for 180K new jobs and the unemployment rate to remain at 4.7%. January and February nonfarm payrolls were revised downward for a total loss of 38K.

Here is an excerpt from the Employment Situation Summary released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

The unemployment rate declined to 4.5 percent in March, and total nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 98,000, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in professional and business services and in mining, while retail trade lost jobs.

Here is a snapshot of the monthly percent change in Nonfarm Employment since 2000. We’ve added a 12-month moving average to highlight the long-term trend.

…continue reading this analysis complete with 8 more charts

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