March saw a substantial jobs increase registering a large 916,000 jump according the Labor Department figures (well above the 130-150,000 estimated increase needed on a monthly basis to stay-up with growing demographics). Construction’s non-seasonally adjusted unemployment figures were mixed: with a decrease in unemployment to 8.6 percent in March [down 1.0 percentage point vs. February ‘21, but at the same time 1.7 percentage points above a year ago in March 2020 when it stood at 6.9%]. Construction added 110,000 jobs in March, following job losses in the previous month (-56,000) that were likely weather-related.  

The overall unemployment figure slide to 6.0 percent i.e., down 0.2 percentage points.  (“Unemployed persons” also dropped to 9.7 million per the government count, down 100K). The “labor force participation” slightly improved to 61.5 percent. [NOTE: The “labor force participation” rate “typically” works inversely to the overall unemployment figures. Meaning: as it deteriorates/gets worse or smaller, it actually is counted as improving unemployment (i.e., people leaving the workforce are no longer viewed/counted as unemployed by the DOL). The “employment to population ratio” also improved slightly to 57.8 percent.  Average hourly earnings for employees remained essentially unchanged at $25.21, still fairly high due to the fact lower wage earners are being disproportionally impacted by the continuing partial government mandated shutdowns in some states and large cities.  

SEE Workforce Statistics Table