It looks like jobs growth slowed down quite a bit for March, missing expectations by almost 100k jobs:
CNBC – Nonfarm payrolls rose 103,000 in March while the unemployment rate was 4.1 percent, falling well short of Wall Street expectations, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report Friday.
Economists had been expecting a payrolls gain of 193,000 and the unemployment rate to decline one-tenth of a point to 4 percent. The monthly reading was a huge slip from the 326,000 reported in February.
A broader measure of unemployment that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time positions for economic reasons — the underemployed — fell two-tenths of a point to 8 percent, its lowest reading in 11 years.
Professional and business services led with 33,000 new jobs while manufacturing and health added 22,000 new jobs apiece. Mining rose 9,000 while construction lost 15,000 positions and retail fell 4,000.
In addition to the weak March growth, January’s total was revised down from 239,000 to 176,000, though February got a boost from 313,000 to 326,000.
The March government number differed strongly from an ADP/Moody’s Analytics reading earlier this week that showed private payrolls up by 241,000. The BLS report indicated that all but 1,000 of the new jobs came from the private sector.
Labor force participation slipped to 62.9 percent as those considered not in the labor force jumped by 323,000 to 95.3 million.
The report comes amid a series of mixed signals for the economy.
I wonder if any of this has to do with the potential for a trade war? I really don’t know, and I’m betting people are probably more pragmatic than that. But given all the tariff rhetoric flying around these days, it wouldn’t surprise me if fears are keeping some from increasing their workforce.