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 

Erica L. Groshen 

Commissioner 

Bureau of Labor Statistics 

before the 

Joint Economic Committee 

UNITED STATES CONGRESS 

Friday, April 4, 2014

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: 

Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the employment and 

unemployment data we released this morning. 

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 192,000 in March, and 

the unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.7 percent. Employment 

increased in professional and business services, in health care, 

and in mining and logging. 

Incorporating the revisions for January and February, which 

increased total nonfarm employment by 37,000 on net, monthly job 

gains have averaged 178,000 over the past 3 months. In the 12 

months prior to March, employment growth averaged 183,000 per 

month. 
2 

All of the net job growth in March occurred in the private 

sector, which now has exceeded its employment level in December 

2007, when the most recent recession began. The private sector 

lost 8.8 million jobs during the labor market downturn and has 

gained 8.9 million since the employment low in February 2010. 

However, government employment is down since the recession began 

(-535,000), and therefore total nonfarm employment remains below 

(-422,000) its December 2007 level. 

In March, employment in professional and business services 

rose (+57,000) in line with the prior 12-month average. Within 

the industry, temporary help services added 29,000 jobs in 

March. Employment growth in temporary help services had averaged 

20,000 per month in the prior 12 months. 

Health care employment rose by 19,000 in March, with gains 

in ambulatory health care services (which includes home health 

care and outpatient care centers). In the prior 12 months, job 

growth in health care had averaged 17,000 per month, with most 

of the growth occurring in ambulatory care. In March, nursing 

care facilities lost 5,000 jobs. 

Employment in mining and logging rose by 7,000 in March, 

led by gains in support activities for mining (+5,000). Mining 

and logging has added 38,000 jobs over the year. 
3 

Employment in food services and drinking places continued 

to trend up in March (+30,000). This industry has added 323,000 

jobs over the year. 

Employment continued to trend up in construction in March 

(+19,000) and is up by 151,000 over the past 12 months. 

Employment in other major industries, including 

manufacturing, wholesale trade, and retail trade, changed little 

in March. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls edged lower by 1 cent in March, after rising by 9 cents 

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

have risen by 2.1 percent. From February 2013 to February 2014, 

the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose by 

1.1 percent. 

In March, the average workweek for all employees on private 

nonfarm payrolls increased to 34.5 hours, offsetting a net 

decline over the prior 3 months. 

Turning now to our survey of households, the unemployment 

rate, at 6.7 percent, was unchanged in March, and the number of 

unemployed persons remained at 10.5 million. The number of 

unemployed persons who had been jobless for 27 weeks or more was 

little changed (3.7 million). These individuals accounted for 

35.8 percent of the unemployed. 
4 

Both the civilian labor force and total employment 

increased in March. The labor force participation rate (63.2 

percent) and the employment-population ratio (58.9 percent) 

changed little over the month. 

Among persons who were neither working nor looking for work 

in March, 2.2 million were classified as marginally attached to 

the labor force, little changed from a year earlier. (These 

individuals 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.) The number of discouraged 

workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that 

no jobs were available for them, edged down over the year to 

698,000 in March. 

In summary, employment rose by 192,000 in March, and the 

unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.7 percent. 

My colleagues and I now would be glad to answer your 

questions.