Expectations were for more than 200,000 new jobs. The report, this morning, crushed those expectations. In the old fashioned sense of “crushed.” As Joseph Lawler of the Washington Examiner writes:
The U.S. economy added a disappointing 126,000 jobs and the unemployment rate held steady in March as the labor market recovery exited the winter on a down note.Friday’s numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics fell short of Wall Street’s expectations for closer to 245,000 new jobs. Revisions also took away 69,000 jobs from past months’ gains.
Before the BLS bucket of cold water, NPR’s John Ydstie was saying
It’s been quite a run for the U.S. job market. Over the past year, the economy has added more than 200,000 jobs every month. That level of job creation hasn’t been seen since a 13-month run back in 1994-95. Economists predict that the economy added 245,000 jobs in March. They also predict the unemployment rate remained at 5.5 percent.
NPR, and others, will now be tasked with making that dismal number square with the “recovery” narrative.
