The US labor market showed strong resilience in March, with nonfarm payrolls rising by 178,000, well above expectations of 48,000. Strong gains offset the downward revision in February, which was revised from -92K to -133K, while the January figure was revised upward from 126K to 160K, reinforcing the volatile hiring trend.
The unemployment rate fell from 4.4% to 4.3%, beating expectations, although the participation rate fell from 62.0% to 61.9%, suggesting that part of the decline was driven by the smaller size of the labor force.
However, wage dynamics were weaker than expected. Average hourly earnings rose 0.2% month-on-month, below expectations of 0.3%, with annual growth of 3.5% year-on-year.
