Employment Growth Moves-Up in March

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) latest report on job number creation, March saw a larger than expected 228,000 new positions added during the month. (This level of growth is well above the 130-150,000 increase range estimated needed on a monthly basis to stay-up with growing demographics).  With respect to the construction job market, the non-seasonally adjusted unemployment was measured at 5.4 percent for March, which is identical to the 2024 level for the same month. [This month’s unemployment number dropped nearly two percent (at 1.8), with the advent of the spring season in parts of the country, compared to February ’25]. Notwithstanding the numeric changes, overall employment in construction again changed little in March taking into account the typical seasonal upturn vs. the monthly trend-lines during the entire year.

The overall U.S. unemployment level rose one-tenth to 4.2 percent. (while “Unemployed persons” stayed the same at 7.1 million per the government count). During month the “labor force participation rate” rose 0.1 to 62.5 percent. [NOTE: The “labor force participation” rate “typically” works inversely to the overall unemployment figures. Meaning: as it deteriorates/gets worse or smaller, it actually is counted as improving unemployment (i.e., people leaving the workforce are no longer counted as unemployed by the DOL).  The “employment to population ratio” remained constant at 59.9 percent. [Both these measures haven’t reached their pre-Covid levels yet; if people were actually seeking jobs, the unemployment rate would be approximately 5.0% ].  Average hourly earnings continued to increase to $30.96 for private sector production and nonsupervisory employees.