DETROIT, Mich. (WWJ) — A new report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday showed that the unemployment rate dropped to 3.6%, nearly matching the number in February 2020 prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report said that the United States added 431,000 new jobs in March, while there as been at least 400,000 new jobs added per month over the last 11 consecutive months, according to The Washington Post.
In February 2020, the unemployment rate was at 3.5% with a total of 5.7 million people unemployed.
"The labor market still has strong positive momentum and is making rapid progress towards pre-pandemic health," economist Rubeela Farooqi of High Frequency Economics said, according to USA Today.
Looking at what type of jobs were hiring over the last month, employment in leisure and hospitality increased by 112,000 in March and job growth in food services and drinking places went up by 61,000.
Professional and business services added 102,000 new jobs last month, and there are now 723,000 new jobs in the field compared to before the pandemic.
Retail jobs increased by 49,000 in March and are up by 278,000 compared to its levels in February of 2020.
Employment in manufacturing had 38,000 new jobs added in March, but they're still down by 128,000 from February 2020.
Average hourly wages also increased in March, going up 13 cents to $31.73 and have increased by 5.6% over the last year.
Despite the unemployment rate dropping to pre-pandemic levels, Guy Berger, principal economist at LinkedIn, told The Washington Post that the country may struggle to keep up the pace going forward.
"Things are zooming along, but there are also a lot of head winds that are likely to cause the labor market to plateau to a more moderate pace of growth," Berger said.
"We've had a lot of forces propping up the labor market — a super supportive Fed, very generous fiscal policies — but those are either played out or actually going in reverse now. In that sense, it’s going to be hard to sustain the strength we’ve been seeing."
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