For Delivery: 9:30 A.M., E.S.T. — 2004-04-02

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 Standard Time. I appreciate this opportunity to comment on the labor market data we released this morning. Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 308,000 in March. This follows revised gains of 159,000 in January and 46,000 in February. Since August 2003, payroll employment has risen by 759,000. The unemployment rate was 5.7 percent in March, little changed over the month. Job growth was fairly widespread in March, with gains in both the goods-producing and service-providing sectors of the economy. Among the goods-producing industries, construction employment increased by 71,000 over the month. This unusually large gain followed a decline of 21,000 in February. Employment in construction has been trending upward over the past year; 201,000 jobs have been added over the period. Manufacturing employment was unchanged in March at 14.3 million.