The US economy created 162,000 jobs last month as the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.7 per cent, the government said on Friday, bolstering hopes that the economic recovery is gathering steam.
The economy shed about 8.4m jobs during the recession, as employers made severe cutbacks and learned to cope with a leaner workforce. Productivity soared to historically high rates last year.
The Obama administration, which has been under pressure to find a solution to persistently high unemployment, welcomed the gains.
High unemployment has been a key reason why the Federal Reserve has maintained rates at historically low levels. At last month’s meeting of the Fed’s interest rate setting committee, monetary policy makers said rates would remain at their current range of 0-0.25 per cent for an “extended period”.
The construction and manufacturing sectors, which suffered some of the biggest job losses during the downturn, respectively added 15,000 and 17,000 positions in March. But weakness in the financial industry continued, as companies shed 21,000 jobs. Overall private sector payrolls increased by 123,000 jobs, a big improvement over gains of 8,000 in February and 16,000 in January.
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