Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly Employment Situation report for March 2019.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 196,000, beating expectations of 175,000 new jobs. Job gains occurred mostly in health care and in professional and technical services.

This marks the 26^th month out of 28 months since President Donald Trump was elected that employment gains have exceeded 100,000 jobs. As a result, more than 5.1 million new jobs have been created since January 2017. Further, there have been more job openings than unemployed workers since last summer, and more workers are coming from out of the labor force rather than from unemployment.

In addition, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 4 cents in March and by 3.2% over the past 12 months. This marks the eighth straight month that year-over-year wage gains were at or above 3%. In contrast, April 2009 was the last time nominal average hourly wage gains had reached 3% before 2018.

The report also noted that the unemployment rate remains at 3.8%. The unemployment rate has now been at or below 4% for the last 13 months. In addition, the number of unemployed people is still 6.2 million, and the labor force participation rate is also still 63%.

The unemployment rate for adult women, however, dropped to 3.3% in March, the lowest rate since 1953. The unemployment rate for adult men is 3.6%, and teenagers have an unemployment rate of 12.8%. In addition, whites have an unemployment rate of 3.4%, and blacks have an unemployment rate of 6.7%. Asians and Hispanics have unemployment rates of 3.1% and 4.7%, respectively.  

Finally, the combined total nonfarm payroll employment for January and February was revised up 14,000 jobs.

The Labor Department also reported yesterday that the US weekly jobless claims dropped to 202,000 for the week ending on March 30. This was the lowest level since early December 1969 and beat the expected 216,000 claims.

Congratulations to President Donald Trump, the Trump administration, Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta, and the Department of Labor on another stellar jobs report!