The employment situation in March 2012

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 120,000 in March. In the prior 3 months, payroll employment had risen by an average of 246,000 per month.

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Private-sector employment grew by 121,000 in March, including gains in manufacturing (+37,000), food services and drinking places (+37,000), and health care (+26,000). Employment in professional and business services continued to trend up in March (+31,000), having grown by 1.4 million since September 2009. Retail trade lost jobs over the month (−34,000). Employment in other major private-sector industries was essentially unchanged, as was government employment.

The unemployment rate was little changed at 8.2 percent.

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Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (7.6 percent), adult women (7.4 percent), teenagers (25.0 percent), whites (7.3 percent), blacks (14.0 percent) and Hispanics (10.3 percent) showed little or no change in March. The jobless rate for Asians was 6.2 percent, not seasonally adjusted.

These data are from the Current Employment Statistics and Current Population Survey programs and are seasonally adjusted. Employment data for the most recent two months are preliminary. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation — March 2011," (HTML) (PDF) news release USDL-12-0614. More charts featuring employment data can be found in Current Employment Statistics Highlights: March 2012 (PDF).