US added 228K jobs in March, jobless rate stays flat

The U.S. economy added 228,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate stayed roughly even at 4.2 percent, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department.

The monthly federal jobs report showed the labor market holding strong in March after another month of rising concern about the impact of President Trump’s economic agenda and major cut to the federal workforce.

March employment data came in well above economists’ expectations of 135,000 new jobs and an unemployment rate of 4.1 percent, according to consensus estimates.

The report also showed a slight decline in federal government employment of just 40,000 jobs, far fewer than the more than 216,000 federal job cuts tracked by Challenger, Christmas and Gray in March.

The combination of a strong jobs numbers, sticky inflation over the past few months, and sweeping new tariffs suggests the Federal Reserve will continue its pause on interest rate cuts. 

The central bank held interbank lending rates steady at a range of 4.25 to 4.5 percent in its first two meetings of this year.

“The solid March jobs report highlights an economy that remains resilient despite sticky inflation, a drop in consumer confidence and uncertainty surrounding the impacts from recently introduced tariffs,” Joe Gaffoglio, president of Mutual of America Capital Management, wrote in a commentary. “With inflation stuck well above the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target and uncertainty over tariffs, the Fed is unlikely to cut rates anytime soon.”

Federal government employment showed a decline of 4,000 jobs from February to March after an initiative by the Trump administration to pare the federal workforce. Cuts have been made to agencies including the IRS, USAID and other agencies.

Government employment was up overall, with states adding 6,000 jobs and local governments adding 17,000 jobs on the month.

Jobs numbers were revised down by nearly 50,000 across the first two months of the year, with 111,000 jobs added in January and 117,000 jobs added in February.

The retail sector added 24,000 jobs in March, health care added 54,000 jobs, and the transportation and warehousing sector added 23,000 jobs.

The March report comes at the end of a tumultuous week for the U.S. economy and financial markets, which have plunged in the wake of Trump’s sweeping new tariffs.

The stock market suffered Thursday its worst day of losses since 2020 after Trump imposed Wednesday a 10 percent universal tariff and effective import tax rates of up to 54 percent on other nations.

Trump’s new tariffs followed his prior imposition of import taxes on Canadian and Mexican goods, foreign metal and imported autos and auto parts.

The president is on track to raise import taxes by roughly $600 billion, according to analyst estimates, even as the economy already showed signs of slowing earlier this year.