Commissioner's Statement on the Employment Situation News Release — 2018-04-06

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 Daylight Time. Nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 103,000 in March, following a large gain in February (+326,000). The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.1 percent in March. Over the month, job gains occurred in manufacturing, health care, and mining. Incorporating revisions for January and February, which decreased nonfarm payroll employment by 50,000 on net, monthly job gains have averaged 202,000 over the past 3 months. Manufacturing employment rose by 22,000 in March. All of the increase occurred in the durable goods component, including a gain of 9,000 in fabricated metal products. Over the past 12 months, manufacturing has added 232,000 jobs; the durable goods component accounted for about three-fourths of the jobs added.