(Silver Doctors Editors) The last two weeks have been historic with regards to initial unemployment claims filings.
In just two weeks, nearly 10 million people filed for unemployment for the first time.
Needless to say, the stage was set for today’s Employment Situation Report, commonly called the Jobs Report, to be one of the most anticipated economic releases in quite some time.
Here’s what some consensus estimates were showing prior to the release, from Econoday:
Notice that the concensus range was over 1,000,000 jobs wide.
The actual report was just released at 08:30 a.m. EST, and here’s how the numbers came in:
- Total employment fell by 701,000 in March
- The unemployment rate rose to 4.4%
- Average hourly earnings (year over year) rose by 3.1%
- Labor force participation decreased to 62.7%
More from the BLS:
Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 701,000 in March, and the unemployment
rate rose to 4.4 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
The changes in these measures reflect the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19)
and efforts to contain it. Employment in leisure and hospitality fell by 459,000,
mainly in food services and drinking places. Notable declines also occurred in
health care and social assistance, professional and business services, retail
trade, and construction.
“Noticeable declines also occurred in health care”
Gold and silver so far are a whole lot of “meh”:
Of course, we’re still under disconnected market conditions.
An accompanying BLS news release, in PDF form is available here, which contains charts and tables:
Here’s the official blurb on those healthcare worker jobs:
Employment in health care and social assistance fell by 61,000 in March. Health care employment declined by 43,000, with job losses in offices of dentists (-17,000), offices of physicians (-12,000), and offices of other health care practitioners (-7,000). Over the prior 12 months, health care employment had grown by 374,000. In March, social assistance saw an employment decline of 19,000, reflecting a job loss in child day care services (-19,000). Over the prior 12 months, social assistance added 193,000 jobs.
Some MSM coverage, via Bloomberg:
U.S. employment plummeted last month in the first decline since 2010, offering an initial look at the widespread devastation the coronavirus pandemic has already begun to wreak on the once-strong labor market.
Payrolls fell 701,000 from the prior month — compared with the median forecast of economists for a 100,000 decline — according to Labor Department data Friday that mainly cover the early part of March, even before government-mandated shutdowns forced firms to lay off millions more workers. The jobless rate jumped to 4.4% — the highest since 2017 — from a half-century low of 3.5%, and is expected to surge above 10% in the coming months.
Developing…