Washington, April 02: Some 216,000 jobs have been created by US employers in March, contributing to a declining jobless rate, though economists are not convinced that the country is witnessing an employment recovery.
“This has been very much a profits recovery. Profits have bounced back very strongly. It has not been an employment recovery,” Economist Michael Mussa told to media.
Healthcare added about 37,000 jobs; manufacturing added some 17,000 positions, while the rest were temporary jobs.
However, the employment rate in the construction department, which is a key indicator of recovery, remained the same.
During March, government employment suffered a decline.
The new openings lowered the country’s unemployment rate to 8.8 percent, although a great number of the jobs that became available do not offer long-term employment.
Economists say there are still 13 million people officially unemployed. However, if those unofficially unemployed, such as the underemployed and those still seeking jobs, are included in the count, 25 million people is closer to the actual number of those without work.
In the US, African Americans have a 15.5-percent unemployment rate, while unemployment among Latin Americans stand at 11.3 percent, rates that have not seen much of a decline.
Economists such as Mussa say the recent job availability is not an end to the country’s unemployment problem, as they fear the number of those unemployed will jump as job seekers who have given up the search, will now return to searching for jobs.
—Agencies