- State Street Global Advisors
Even though the US economy added more jobs than expected in March, the nation's unemployment rate climbed. According to the US Department of Labour, non-farm payrolls surged by 215,000 last month, following the upwardly revised reading of 245,000 in February. Nevertheless, the unemployment rate inched up slightly to 5%, driven up by a larger number of people looking for work. In January the jobless rate declined below 5% for the first time since 2008 and had remained there for the first two months. In addition to that, average hourly earnings rose by 0.3% last month, overshooting analysts' expectations, and were up 2.3% over the year ending in March.
A separate report showed US manufacturing grew in March, ending a five-month stretch of declines in factory activity. According to the Institute for Supply Management, its manufacturing index climbed to 51.8 last month from 49.5 in February. The rebound indicated that US factories are adapting to the turmoil overseas, where a stronger US Dollar and slowing economies in China, Japan and elsewhere have undermined sales. Nevertheless, the details of the report appeared to be somewhat uneven. New orders and production improved, but the measure of employment at manufacturers declined.
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