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 

Friday, April 1, 2016

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 215,000 in March, 

and the unemployment rate was little changed at 5.0 percent. Job 

growth occurred in retail trade, construction, and health care. 

Employment fell in manufacturing and mining. 

Incorporating revisions for January and February, which 

reduced nonfarm payroll employment by 1,000 on net, monthly job 

gains have averaged 209,000 over the past 3 months. In the 12 

months prior to March, employment growth averaged 223,000 per 

month. 

In March, retail trade employment rose by 48,000. Job 

growth occurred in general merchandise stores (+12,000), health 

and personal care stores (+10,000), building material and garden 

supply stores (+10,000), and auto dealers (+5,000). Over the 

year, retail trade has added 378,000 jobs. 
 

2 

Employment in construction rose by 37,000 over the month 

and is up by 301,000 over the year. Residential specialty trade 

contractors continued to add jobs in March (+12,000). Employment 

in this industry has risen by 135,000 over the year, 

representing almost half of the job growth in construction. 

Elsewhere in construction, employment in heavy and civil 

engineering construction increased by 11,000 over the month. 

Health care employment rose by 37,000 in March. Both 

ambulatory health care services (+27,000) and hospitals 

(+10,000) added jobs. Over the year, health care employment has 

increased by 503,000. 

Over the month, employment continued to trend up in food 

services and drinking places (+25,000) and in financial 

activities (+15,000). 

In March, employment in professional and business services 

changed little for the third month in a row. In 2015, the 

industry added an average of 52,000 jobs per month. Within the 

industry, employment in professional and technical services 

continued to trend up over the month (+14,000). Temporary help 

services employment has shown little change in recent months. 

Manufacturing employment fell by 29,000 in March. Job 

losses were concentrated in durable goods manufacturing 

industries, including machinery (-7,000), primary metals 

(-3,000), and semiconductors and electronic components (-3,000). 
 

3 

Since reaching a recent employment peak in March 2015, durable 

goods manufacturing has lost 68,000 jobs. 

Employment in mining declined by 12,000 in March, primarily 

in support activities for mining (-10,000). Since a recent peak 

in September 2014, mining employment has fallen by 185,000. More 

than three-fourths of the job losses over this period have been 

in support activities for mining. 

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm 

payrolls rose by 7 cents in March to $25.43. Over the past 12 

months, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.3 percent. From 

February 2015 to February 2016, the Consumer Price Index for All 

Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 1.0 percent (on a 

seasonally adjusted basis). 

Turning now to data from the survey of households, both the 

unemployment rate, at 5.0 percent, and the number of unemployed, 

at 8.0 million, changed little in March. These measures have 

shown little movement since August. Among the unemployed in 

March, 2.2 million, or 27.6 percent, had been jobless for 27 

weeks or more. 

The labor force participation rate, at 63.0 percent, and 

the employment-population ratio, at 59.9 percent, were little 

changed in March. Both measures are up by 0.6 percentage point 

since September. 
 

4 

Among those employed, the number working part time for 

economic reasons, also referred to as involuntary part-time 

workers, was 6.1 million in March. This measure has shown little 

movement since November. (Involuntary part-time workers are 

those who would have preferred full-time employment but were 

working part time because their hours had been cut back or 

because they were unable to find full-time work.) 

Among people who were neither working nor looking for work 

in March, 1.7 million were classified as marginally attached to 

the labor force, down from 2.1 million a year earlier. The 

number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally 

attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, was 

585,000 in March, down from 738,000 a year earlier. (The 

marginally attached are individuals who 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 increased by 215,000 

in March, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 5.0 

percent.