U.S. adds 192K jobs in March; jobless rate holds at 6.7%

WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added jobs at a solid pace in March and hired more in January and February than previously thought.
Friday’s government report sent a reassuring signal that the economy withstood a h
arsh winter that had slowed growth.
The economy gained 192,000 jobs in March, the Labor Department said Friday, slightly below February’s revised total of 197,000. Employers added a combined 37,000 more jobs in January and February than previously estimated.
The unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.7 percent. But a half-million Americans started looking for work last month, and most of them found jobs. The increase in job-seekers is a sign that they were more optimistic about their prospects.
“We’re back to where we were before the weather got bad,” said John Canally, an economist at LPL Financial. “It’s a nice, even report that suggests the labor market is expanding.”
March’s jobs gain nearly matched last year’s average monthly total, suggesting that the job market has mostly recovered from the previous months’ severe winter weather.