Nonfarm payroll employment edged up in March (+88,000). Employment grew in professional and business services and in health care but declined in retail trade.
Professional and business services added 51,000 jobs in March. Over the past 12 months, employment in this industry has grown by 533,000.
Construction employment continued to trend up in March (+18,000). Job growth in this industry picked up this past fall; since September, the industry has added 169,000 jobs.
Within government, U.S. Postal Service employment fell by 12,000 in March. Employment in other major industries, including mining, manufacturing, wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities, state government, and local government, showed little change over the month.
These data are from the Current Employment Statistics program and are seasonally adjusted. Employment data for the most recent two months are preliminary. To learn more, see "The Employment Situation — March 2013," (HTML) (PDF) news release USDL-13-0581.
United States Department of Labor
