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The U.S. labor market grew by 431,000 jobs last month as higher wages and rising prices drew more people back to work.
March marked the 11th consecutive month of job gains of more than 400,000, the longest such run since 1939, according to the U.S. labor department.
Retail, restaurants, and manufacturing all showed strong hiring.
The March unemployment rate ticked down to 3.6 percent from 3.8 in February, almost reaching the 50-year record low of 3.5 percent set in February 2020.
The waning of the COVID virus also drew people back into the labor force.
In March, 900,000 people reported being unable or unwilling to seek work because of the virus, compared to 1.2 million the month before, the labor department said.
The labor force participation rate—the number of people working or actively looking for a job—edged up to 62.4 last month. It was 62.3 in February.
The rate is still below the 63.6 percent rate in 2019 before the COVID War began.
Also in March, more than 300,000 women took jobs and made up most of the labor force’s gains. Still, fewer women are in the workforce now than before the COVID era, while the number of men now equals or surpasses the pre-COVID level.
Average worker pay shot up 5.6 percent in March, year over year, although wage gains slowed their rate of growth in February and March, indicating that employers are having less trouble hiring.
However, the economy remains 1.6 million jobs smaller than in February 2020.
TREND FORECAST: Companies still struggle to find workers, there are more open jobs than there are people unemployed, and the Great Resignation continues, with 4.4 million workers quitting their jobs in February, Labor Department figures show.
Almost a third of workers who switched jobs in the past two years are earning a package of wages and bonuses 30 percent more valuable than in the jobs they left, according to a Conference Board survey.
As the COVID War winds down, which we had forecast back at the beginning of the year that it would do so by the end of March to mid-April—despite the current inflation spikes, economic uncertainties and Ukraine War worries—job growth will continue.