April 1996 — 1996-04-05

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 time. Good morning. I am pleased to be here to comment on the March 1996 employment and unemployment data that were released this morning. Payroll job growth continued in March, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 5.6 percent. Nonfarm payroll employment, as measured by the establishment survey, grew by 140,000 in March. The increase in payroll jobs during the first quarter of this year has averaged 206,000 a month. This is above the monthly average for the last 3 quarters of 1995, but still below 1994s average monthly increase. Job growth in March was led by the services industry, which added 131,000 workers. Health services, as well as seasonal industries including hotels and also amusements and recreation had large gains. Computer services and engineering and management services continued their strong growth trends.