Note: K=1000
March’s employment report shows a large bounce back in employment: The US economy created 178,000 new jobs in March. A return to the average ( 178K-133K last month=45K). Job growth has been paltry under President Trump. The trend continues. Other than that, there was no significant employment news in the jobs report.
Healthcare employment rebounded (+76,000) and so did leisure and hospitality(+44K). Construction was a surprise at +26,000 new jobs as was manufacturing (15K), couriers and messengers added +20,000, and Social Welfare added + 11,000 jobs.
Federal government cuts continued (-18K) and financial services lost -15,000 positions.
Unemployment dropped to 4.3% as the overall US labor force shrank, while the Black unemployment also dropped to 7.1 from 7.7% due to both a smaller labor force and a lower participation rate.
The real black unemployment rate was 15.9%
Absolutely no employment news here in March. Keep it moving.
We want to point out some important trends to watch
1. The monthly employment numbers are messy. They jump around. The BLS says they can vary by up to 122,000 (plus/minus) during the measurement period. The result can be wide swings in the monthly employment report that make headlines but not news. The average unemployment will trend toward the mean (average) over a medium period of time (24 months), which will corrects some of the variability problem.
Under Trump, we create about 60,000 new jobs each month on average. Under the last two years of Biden, we created about 120,000 jobs.
2. The monthly data and headlines miss larger trends that the BLS captures that don’t get reported. And they are worrisome. There is a continued higher-than-normal Black unemployment rate. Second, there is a huge difficulty for new, college-educated workers in finding jobs. Those problems are real. The US has a real “jobs crisis,” and both groups are experiencing the effects.
The problem of Black underemployment and unemployment is not going away. In March 2026, as compared to 2025, there were 200,000 fewer black workers:
Young people are having trouble finding jobs. College graduates are having an even worse time. Post-college underemployment is a huge issue.
3. Inflation remains relatively high(3.5%), and consumer confidence is lower than normal. However, worker wages are generally matching inflation growth year over year.
Blackcomomics.com predicts the April jobs report will be 75,000 jobs and the black unemployment rate will be reported at 7.5%.
Summary
One very average jobs report is not a trend. The Trump administration’s policies are creating half the jobs that Biden did. And the American people are hurting.