Employment Picture remains weak , with little job growth in March
April 6th,2013
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, once again the U.S. job-creation was almost non existent in March as employers hired fewer workers than forecast and a shrinking labor force helped push the unemployment rate down to the lowest in four years.
Payrolls grew by only 88,000 workers, the smallest gain in nine months, and the jobless rate fell to 7.6 percent from 7.7 percent, Labor Department data reported.
Some of the weakness appeared due to higher tax rates that took effect in January.Recent reports have pointed to relatively buoyant retail sales in January and February, but Friday’s data showed retailers actually cut staff in March by 24,100, making it the hardest-hit sector last month.
Moreover, the government said hiring in the retail sector was weaker in January and February than initially thought.
It was unclear whether across-the-board federal budget cuts that began in March played a role in the weak pace of hiring, although nervousness over the cuts might have made businesses shy about taking on more staff , but the federal government shed 14,000 jobs in March, almost all of which were accounted for by the U.S. Postal Service.
The weak ” recovery ” has been the slowest since World War 2
