Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press 

under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that 

the data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

Statement of 

William J. Wiatrowski 

Acting Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

Friday, April 6, 2018

Nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 103,000 in March, 

following a large gain in February (+326,000). The unemployment 

rate remained unchanged at 4.1 percent in March. Over the month, 

job gains occurred in manufacturing, health care, and mining.

Incorporating revisions for January and February, which 

decreased nonfarm payroll employment by 50,000 on net, monthly 

job gains have averaged 202,000 over the past 3 months. 

Manufacturing employment rose by 22,000 in March. All of 

the increase occurred in the durable goods component, including 

a gain of 9,000 in fabricated metal products. Over the past 12 

months, manufacturing has added 232,000 jobs; the durable goods 

component accounted for about three-fourths of the jobs added. 

Employment in health care increased by 22,000 in March and

has grown by 304,000 over the year. Within the industry, 
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employment continued to trend up over the month in ambulatory 

health care services (+16,000) and hospitals (+10,000). 

Mining employment rose by 9,000 in March, with gains 

occurring in support activities for mining (+6,000) and in oil 

and gas extraction (+2,000). Employment in mining has expanded 

by 78,000 since a recent low point in October 2016. 

Employment in professional and business services continued 

to trend up in March (+33,000). Over the year, employment in the 

industry has increased by 502,000, with gains distributed across 

most of the component industries. 

Employment in retail trade changed little in March (-4,000) 

following an increase in February (+47,000). Within the 

industry, employment in general merchandise stores declined by 

13,000 over the month, offsetting an increase of the same 

magnitude in February. Over the year, employment in retail trade 

has shown little net change. 

In March, employment in construction changed little 

(-15,000), following a large increase in February (+65,000). 

These employment changes averaged 25,000 per month, roughly in 

line with the average monthly gain over the previous 6 months. 

Employment in other major industries--wholesale trade, 

transportation and warehousing, information, financial 

activities, leisure and hospitality, and government--showed 

little change over the month. 
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Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls rose by 8 cents in March to $26.82, following a 3-cent 

gain in February. Over the past 12 months, average hourly 

earnings have risen by 2.7 percent. From February 2017 to 

February 2018, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers 

(CPI-U) increased by 2.3 percent (on a seasonally adjusted 

basis). 

Turning now to data from the survey of households, the 

unemployment rate in March was 4.1 percent for the sixth month 

in a row. The number of unemployed people, at 6.6 million, 

changed little in March.

The number of unemployed people searching for work for 27 

weeks or more, at 1.3 million, was also little changed in March. 

These long-term unemployed accounted for 20.3 percent of the 

total unemployed. 

The labor force participation rate, at 62.9 percent, 

changed little over the month and has shown little movement on 

net over the past year. The employment-population ratio remained 

at 60.4 percent in March. 

Among the employed, the number of people working part time 

for economic reasons, also referred to as involuntary part-time 

workers, was 5.0 million in March. This measure was little 

changed over the month and has held fairly steady since last 

fall.
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In March, among those neither working nor looking for work, 

1.5 million were considered marginally attached to the labor 

force, little different from a year earlier. Discouraged 

workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that 

no jobs were available to them, numbered 450,000 in March, 

essentially unchanged from a year earlier. (People who are 

marginally attached to the labor force had not looked for work 

in the 4 weeks prior to the survey but wanted a job, were 

available for work, and had looked for a job within the last 12 

months.) 

In summary, nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 103,000

in March, and the unemployment rate held steady at 4.1 percent.