U.S. Hiring Spree Shows Economy Added 431,000 Jobs In March 2022

America’s employers extended a streak of robust hiring in March, adding 431,000 jobs in a sign of the economy’s resilience in the face of a still-destructive pandemic, Russia’s war against Ukraine, and the highest inflation in 40 years, Paul Wiseman reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: The government’s report Friday showed that last month’s job growth helped shrink the unemployment rate to 3.6%.

“The economy has recuperated more than 90 percent of the 22 million jobs lost at the peak of the pandemic’s impact on the economy in the spring of 2020 — a far swifter rebound than forecasters initially expected,” the New York Times also reported, adding it shows the economy is rebounding and putting the lie to the claim by Republicans are leading the US economy to perdition.

The government’s report Friday showed that last month’s job growth helped shrink the unemployment rate to 3.6%. That’s the lowest rate since the pandemic erupted two years ago and just above the half-century low of 3.5% that was reached two years ago.

Despite the inflation surge, persistent supply bottlenecks, damage from COVID-19, and now a war in Europe, employers have added at least 400,000 jobs for 11 straight months. In its report Friday, the government also sharply revised its estimate of hiring in January and February by a combined 95,000 jobs.

This report also sketched a bright picture of the job market, with steady hiring and rising wages in many industries. Average hourly pay has risen a strong 5.6% over the past 12 months, welcome news for employees across the economy.

Still, those pay raises aren’t keeping up with the spike in inflation that has put the Federal Reserve on track to raise rates several times in the coming months.

Those rate hikes will result in costlier loans for many consumers and businesses. In the meantime, worker pay raises, a response in many cases to labor shortages, are themselves feeding the economy’s inflation pressures.

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