Unemployment Rose in March; Payrolls Up
The nation's jobless rate rose last month, but the number of payroll jobs increased and there were other signs that U.S. labor markets are stabilizing after last year's recession.</br></br>The unemployment rate increased sharply late last year after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The rate reached a peak of 5.8 percent in December, fell to 5.6 percent in January and 5.5 percent in February before going up to 5.7 percent last month, the Labor Department reported yesterday.</br></br>Meanwhile, non-farm employers added 58,000 jobs to payrolls last month, the first increase in eight months, after cutting them by 2,000 in February. The February figure was revised downward significantly from the original estimate of a 66,000 gain.</br></br>Lois Orr, acting commissioner of labor statistics, said in a prepared statement that the payroll figures for March and February "provide a marked contrast to the average monthly job losses of 144,000 that prevailed from March 2001 through January 2002."</br></br>The jobless rate and number of payroll jobs can move in different directions for several reasons, including the fact that they result from separate surveys. The unemployment rate comes from a monthly survey of about 60,000 U.S. households, the payroll figures from a survey of roughly 350,000 businesses. Labor experts generally regard the payroll numbers as the more accurate measure of changes in the labor market, but the unemployment rate receives more public attention.