(CEP News) - The U.S. economy shed 663,000 jobs in March, marking the fifth month in a row that job losses have been more than half-a-million. The unemployment rate rose four-tenths to 8.5%.

Economists had forecast a loss of 660k jobs in March, while the previous month saw 651k job losses.

The unemployment rate soared up four-tenths to 8.5% (8.543%), as expected.

The loss in total private jobs was 658k, compared to 651k in February, while the goods-producing sector lost 305k, following 285k job losses the month prior. The services sector slashed 358k jobs, while construction fell by 126k, and manufacturing lost 161k jobs. The business services sector lost 133k jobs while the financial sector shed 43k jobs.

The only gains seen in February were in areas outside the private sector, with education & health care advancing by 8k.

Average hourly earnings rose 0.2% from February, in line with expectations, while average weekly earnings fell by 0.1% on the month and grew 1.5% annually.

The labour force participation rate moved down one-tenth to 65.5%.

By Megan Ainscow, mainscow@economicnews.ca, edited by Stephen Huebl, shuebl@economicnews.ca

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Posted in Categories: Economy, Releases, USA.

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