Wednesday ADP reported a jobs increase of 263,000, but given the report’s spotty record, Brent Nyitray, iServe Residential Lending director of capital markets, explained the street was expecting an increase of 178,000.
These predictions were far from the true number.
The total nonfarm employment increased by 98,000 in March, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down significantly from February’s strong increase of 235,000.
The unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 4.5% in March as the total number of unemployed dropped 326,000 to 7.2 million people. The labor force participation rate held steady at 63%.
Here are where some of the changes in March’s labor market occurred:
Professional and business services: Increased 56,000
Mining: Increased 11,000
Healthcare: Increased 14,000
Financial activities: Increased 9,000
Construction: Increased 6,000
Retail trade: Decreased 30,000
Employment in other major industries, including manufacturing, wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, information, leisure and hospitality, and government, showed little or no change over the month.
As this shows, construction did not receive ADP’s predicted boost of 50,000 new jobs. Inventory of homes for sale continues to dwindle as the market hurts for more construction workers.
