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

Kathleen P. Utgoff

Commissioner

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Friday, April 7, 2006

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 211,000 in March, 

following an increase of 225,000 in February. During the 

12 months ending in March, monthly employment growth 

averaged 174,000. Over the month, there were widespread 

job gains in the service-providing sector. The 

unemployment rate was little changed at 4.7 percent. 

Employment in professional and business services rose 

by 52,000 in March. Several component industries continued 

to add jobs, including architectural and engineering 

services, computer systems design, management and 

consulting services, and services to buildings and 

dwellings. 

The leisure and hospitality industry added 42,000 jobs 

over the month, largely due to a sizable gain in food 

services and drinking places. Health care employment 
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increased by 24,000, reflecting continued growth in 

hospitals, physicians’ offices, and home health care 

services. 

A large job gain in general merchandise stores pushed 

employment in retail trade up by 29,000 in March. 

Wholesale trade continued to add workers over the month. 

Financial activities added 16,000 jobs, with continued 

growth in credit intermediation and in insurance. 

In the goods-producing sector, mining employment 

continued to grow in March, largely in support activities 

in oil and gas. Employment in manufacturing was about 

unchanged, as a gain in computer and electronic products 

was offset by job losses in textile mills and in plastics 

and rubber products. Construction employment also was 

essentially unchanged in March, after rising by 81,000 in 

the previous 2 months. 

Average hourly earnings for private production or 

nonsupervisory workers rose by 3 cents in March, following 

an increase of 6 cents in February. Over the year, hourly 

earnings increased by 3.4 percent. The average workweek 

was unchanged in March, at 33.8 hours. The manufacturing 

workweek and overtime hours also were unchanged, at 41.0 

and 4.5 hours, respectively. 
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Turning to data from the household survey, both the 

number of unemployed persons (7.0 million) and the 

unemployment rate (4.7 percent) were little changed in 

March. Over the year, the unemployment rate has come down 

from 5.1 percent. Total employment and the labor force 

continued to trend up in March. The number of persons 

working part time for economic reasons edged down over the 

month. 

This month, we again report on the labor force status 

of survey respondents who evacuated from their homes due to 

Hurricane Katrina. The data are derived from a special set 

of questions that have been included in the household 

survey since October to gather information about evacuees. 

The estimates do not account for all persons who evacuated 

from their homes due to the hurricane; information is not 

gathered on those evacuees who remain outside the scope of 

the survey, such as those currently living in hotels or 

shelters. 

Data for March indicated that there were about 1 

million persons age 16 and over who evacuated from their 

August residences due to Hurricane Katrina. In March, 

about one-half of the evacuees were again living in the 

homes they vacated in August. Among Katrina evacuees 

identified in March, 53.6 percent were in the labor force, 
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and their unemployment rate was 16.5 percent. Unemployment 

rates were much lower for those evacuees who were living at 

their pre-Katrina residences (5.3 percent) than for those 

who were living elsewhere (34.7 percent). 

To summarize the labor market data for March, nonfarm 

payroll employment rose by 211,000, following a gain of 

225,000 in February. The unemployment rate was about 

unchanged in March at 4.7 percent.