All that glitters is not gold in the latest hiring data, which shows that a surprisingly high 303,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy in March. Except the numbers are a little more tricky than most of the media coverage would have you believe.
The glitter: The topline number from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report is way better than the 200,000 jobs economists forecast and is the largest one-month jump since May 2023. Unemployment also ticked down slightly from 3.9 percent to 3.8 percent.
This sounds great until you look closer…
Fools gold: The job gains were entirely made up of part-time employment. In March, 691,000 part-time jobs were added, and full-time jobs dropped by 6,000.
Foreign workers taking American jobs: The March data shows that in the last year, native-born Americans have lost a net of 651,000 jobs. And worse, they have been replaced with 1.3 million foreign-born workers.
- It’s important to note that the BLS report does not distinguish between foreign-born workers who are here legally or illegally.
Where were jobs added? The sectors that saw the most growth were healthcare (72,000) and government (71,000). There was zero gain in manufacturing jobs.
Big picture: In 2022-2023, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to make it harder for you to borrow money in the hopes that it would slow down the economy, which, in theory, should cool down inflation. But this hot jobs report means interest rates are going to stay higher for longer — something Joe Biden does not want in an election year.
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