Payroll employment increases by 126,000 in March; unemployment rate unchanged at 5.5%

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Fri Apr 17, 2015, 12:22 PM - Edit history (10)

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Employment Situation Summary
USDL-15-0530
Transmission of material in this release is embargoed until 8:30 a.m. (EDT) Friday, April 3, 2015

Technical information:
Household data: [phone] • [email protected] • www.bls.gov/cps
Establishment data: [phone] • [email protected] • www.bls.gov/ces

Media contact: [phone] • [email protected]


THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION -- MARCH 2015

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 126,000 in March, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment continued to trend up in professional and business services, health care, and retail trade, while mining lost jobs.

Household Survey Data

In March, the unemployment rate held at 5.5 percent, and the number of unemployed persons was little changed at 8.6 million. Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons were down by 1.1 percentage points and 1.8 million,
respectively. (See table A-1.)
....

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 2.6 million in March. These individuals accounted for 29.8 percent of the unemployed. Over the past 12 months, the number of long-term unemployed has declined by 1.1 million. (See table A-12.)

The civilian labor force participation rate was little changed at 62.7 percent in March. Since April 2014, the participation rate has remained within a narrow range of 62.7 percent to 62.9 percent. In March, the employment-population ratio was 59.3 percent for the third consecutive month. (See table A-1.)
....

In March, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 7 cents to $24.86. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.1 percent. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 4 cents to $20.86 in March. (See tables B-3 and B-8.)

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for January was revised from +239,000 to +201,000, and the change for February was revised from +295,000 to +264,000. With these revisions, employment gains in January and February combined were 69,000 less than previously reported. Over the past 3 months, job gains have averaged 197,000 per month.


Read more: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

---

126,000? That's half the expected number. The U.S. stock markets are closed today, so there won't be any turmoil there. Still, this is not what everyone thought would happen. This is the first month with under 200,000 jobs added since ... give me a minute.... Well, Reuters says it's the lowest since 2013:

U.S. job growth weakest since 2013; unemployment rate steady

The numbers for February and January were lowered too.

Since it's a gummint report, I went with six paragraphs. Even with that, I can highlight only a few things.

I don't sugar coat stuff. I just rip the release off the wires and hand it to you.

Please enjoy my meager efforts.


[center]Facilities for Sensory Impaired[/center]

Information from this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: [phone], Federal Relay Services: 1-800-877-8339.


[center]Dedication[/center]

This month's thread is dedicated to Janet L. Norwood, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1979 to 1991. She died last week.

The obituary in the Washington Post said:

Dr. Norwood was nominated to her first four-year term by President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, and was retained for two more terms by his Republican successor, Ronald Reagan. When she stepped down, she had, the New York Times reported, a “near-legendary reputation for nonpartisanship.”

This is from the obituary in the New York Times:

“Simply put, all U.S. policy makers, businesses and families can make better decisions every day because of Janet Norwood’s work at B.L.S.,” Erica L. Groshen, the bureau’s current commissioner, wrote in a statement.

We can all be thankful for her independence and non-partisanship.


[center]Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends.[/center]

Good morning, Freepers and DUers alike. I especially welcome our good friends from across the aisle. You're paying for this information too, so I am absolutely delighted to have you participate in this thread. Please, everyone, put aside your differences long enough to digest the information. After that, you can engage in your usual donnybrook.

If you don't have the time to study the report thoroughly, here is the news in a nutshell:

Commissioner's Statement on The Employment Situation

It is easy to find one paragraph, or one sentence, or one datum in this report that will support the most outlandish of conclusions, from "the sky is falling" to "we'll have blue skies, nothing but blue skies, from now on." Easy, but disingenuous.

Every month, you can find something in the report that will cause you concern. One such nugget is the "labor force participation rate." Take the information in context. Consider not just this month’s data, but the trend.

Please take the time to look at progree's thoughtful analysis in his reply to the thread for the December 2014 jobs report. Thank you so much for that, progree.

Job statistics - over the past month, over the past year, and since February 2010

See, as well, his not-to-be-missed thread, revised monthly. Here is the latest update:

Economy facts with links to official sources, rev 4/3/15

Let's begin with a couple of questions. Who is this Bureau of Labor Statistics, and why are they releasing all these numbers every month?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics and serves as a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System. The BLS is a governmental statistical agency that collects, processes, analyzes, and disseminates essential statistical data to the American public, the U.S. Congress, other Federal agencies, State and local governments, business, and labor representatives. The BLS also serves as a statistical resource to the Department of Labor, and conducts research into how much families need to earn to be able to enjoy a decent standard of living.

The BLS data must satisfy a number of criteria, including relevance to current social and economic issues, timeliness in reflecting today’s rapidly changing economic conditions, accuracy and consistently high statistical quality, and impartiality in both subject matter and presentation. To avoid the appearance of partiality, the dates of major data releases are scheduled more than a year in advance, in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget.

Note carefully those words: "accuracy," "quality," and "impartiality."

Full disclosure: I do not work for BLS, nor am I friends with anyone over there. I'm just someone who appreciates the work they do. My sole connection with the agency is that I've been in their building to pick up some publications.


[center]Household Survey vs. Establishment Survey[/center]

From the February 10, 2011, DOL Newsletter:

Take Three

Secretary Solis answers three questions about how the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates unemployment rates.

How does BLS determine the unemployment rate and the number of jobs that were added each month?

BLS uses two different surveys to get these numbers. The household survey, or Current Population Survey (CPS), involves asking people, from about 60,000 households, a series of questions to assess each person in the household's activities including work and searching for work. Their responses give us the unemployment rate. The establishment survey, or Current Employment Statistics (CES), surveys 140,000 employers about how many people they have on their payrolls. These results determine the number of jobs being added or lost.

[center]The Wall Street Journal. MoneyBeat Blog[/center]

March Jobs Report: Everything You Need to Know

8:13 am ET
Apr 3, 2015
Markets


—Associated Press

Yes, it was that time again, folks. Jobs Friday, when for one ever-so-brief moment the interests of Wall Street, Washington and Main Street are all aligned on one thing: jobs.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected to report that the economy added 248,000 jobs in March, with the unemployment rate steady at 5.5%. In February, the economy added 295,000, and the unemployment rate was 5.5%.

Here at MoneyBeat HQ, we will crunch the numbers and compile the commentary before and after the data crosses the wires. As a reminder, the equities market in the U.S. is closed for Good Friday (the futures market is open until 9:15), though the bond market is open until 12 p.m., which means bond traders get to trade on the report before everybody else.

Feel free to continue the conversation in the comments section. And while you’re here, why don’t you sign up to follow us on Twitter.

Here are a few recent comments:

8:19 am

Elusive Earnings by Ben Leubsdorf



The recovery’s missing ingredient has been wage growth, stuck around 2% a year for the last half-decade. Average hourly earnings of private-sector workers in February were $24.78, up—you guessed it—2% from a year earlier. But Patrick O’Keefe, director of economic research at accounting and consulting firm CohnReznick, thinks earnings could pick up in March as more employers raise wages to retain and hire workers in a tighter labor market. “I think there is growing evidence that we are finally—and it’s been a long time coming—seeing some acceleration in earnings growth,” he said. A note of caution: Monthly wage growth has jumped several times during the recovery, then quickly faded.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

8:18 am

Lowered Expectations by Kristen Scholer

While forecasts call for 248,000 jobs added in March, some market watchers expect a more disappointing print, as we highlighted in Friday’s Morning MoneyBeat. With the first rate increase in nine years looming over the market, and the good-news-is-bad-news trade in play, stocks may welcome a below-consensus number though.

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8:18 am

Payroll Power by Ben Leubsdorf

Among the things we’re watching: The economy has added at least 200,000 jobs a month—every month—for the last year, including an eye-popping 423,000 gain in November. While 200,000 may be a psychological threshold, it’s still been an impressive streak of job creation, unmatched since a 13-month run in 1994-95. The pace of hiring could slow a bit in March from the 288,000 monthly average over the prior three months, amid other signs of slower growth in the U.S. economy during the early months of 2015. Keep an eye on revisions to the January and February data, as well.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

8:18 am

Good Morning by Paul Vigna

First!

Here we go, Mouseketeers. It’s Job Friday, and it’s Good Friday, and it will be Passover this evening. So the highways are lightly treaded, Times Square is quiet, and the trading pits are silent (mostly). So it will be interesting to see what, if any, reaction this report gets in the bond market.

That said, I can tell you where people are, and that’s in this newsroom. Who can pass up a Jobs Friday?

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

You forgot to say "Enjoy the show."

Before we do anything else, let's give credit to the workers behind the MoneyBeat blog:

The MoneyBeat Team:

Stephen Grocer
Editor

Phillipa Leighton-Jones
European Editor

Erik Holm
Deputy Editor

Maureen Farrell
Reporter, New York

Paul Vigna
Reporter, New York

David Cottle
Reporter, London

MoneyBeat Columnists

Ronald Barusch
Dealpolitik

Francesco Guerrera
Current Account

Alen Mattich
Alen Mattich

Jason Zweig
The Intelligent Investor

Michael J. Casey
Horizons

E. S. Browning


[center]The Large Print Giveth, and the Fine Print Taketh Away.[/center]

A DU'er pointed out several months ago that, if I'm going to post the link to the press release, I should include the link to all the tables that provide additional ways of examining the data. Specifically, I should post a link to Table A-15. Alternative measures of labor underutilization. Table A-15 includes those who are not considered unemployed, on the grounds that they have become discouraged about the prospects of finding a job and have given up looking. Here are those links.

Employment Situation

Table A-15. Alternative measures of labor underutilization


[center]Past Performance is Not a Guarantee of Future Results.[/center]

Nonetheless, what is important is not this month's results, but the trend. Let’s look at some earlier numbers:

ADP® (Automatic Data Processing), for employment in March 2015:

ADP National Employment Report: Private Sector Employment Increased by 189,000 Jobs in March

Bureau of Labor Statistics, for employment in February 2015:

Payroll employment increases in February (+295,000); unemployment rate edges down to 5.5%

Bureau of Labor Statistics, for employment in January 2015:

Payroll employment rises in January (+257,000); unemployment rate changes little (5.7%)

ADP® (Automatic Data Processing), for employment in January 2015:

ADP National Employment Report: Private Sector Employment Increased by 213,000 Jobs in January

Bureau of Labor Statistics, for employment in December 2014:

Payroll employment rises by 252,000 in December; unemployment rate declines to 5.6%

ADP® (Automatic Data Processing), for employment in December 2014 (hat tip, IDemo):

ADP Says Companies in U.S. Added 241,000 Workers in December

Bureau of Labor Statistics, for employment in November 2014:

Payroll employment increases by 321,000 in November; unemployment rate unchanged at 5.8%

ADP® (Automatic Data Processing), for employment in November 2014:

ADP National Employment Report Shows 208,000 Jobs Added in November

Bureau of Labor Statistics, for employment in October 2014:

Payroll employment increases by 214,000 in October; unemployment rate edges down to 5.8%

ADP® (Automatic Data Processing), for employment in October 2014:

ADP National Employment Report Shows 230,000 Jobs Added in October

Bureau of Labor Statistics, for employment in September 2014:

Payroll employment increases by 248,000 in September; unemployment rate declines to 5.9%

ADP® (Automatic Data Processing), for employment in September 2014:

ADP National Employment Report Shows 213,000 Jobs Added in September


[center]Nattering Nabobs of Negativism[/center]

Here’s a grim thought:

Fed economists: America’s missing workers are not coming back

Let’s follow that with another grim thought:

Why wage growth disparity tells the story of America's half-formed economic recovery

By Chico Harlan November 21, 2014
@chicoharlan
[email protected]

WILMINGTON, Del. — Thomas Gray says he was fortunate coming out of the recession: He took a job in one of the nation’s fastest-growing industries, food services, preparing meals for 500 students in a Head Start cafeteria.

But after two years of work, his salary had not budged, so his mother came out of retirement and took a job at United Way. Four more years have passed, and Gray is skipping bills to manage his expenses. During that time, his salary has risen 58 cents, to $11.70 per hour. But after taking into account the rising price of goods and services — inflation — he has taken a 6 percent pay cut.
....

With unemployment down to 5.8 percent, the country’s half-formed recovery is often described with a convenient shorthand: We have jobs but little wage growth. But stagnancy is just an average, and for many Americans, the years since the financial crisis have pushed them farther from the line, according to a detailed analysis of government labor statistics by The Washington Post.
....

Among the winners in this climate: Older workers, women and those with finance and technology jobs. ... Among the losers: Part-timers, the young, men, and those in the health, retail and food industries.
....

Chico Harlan covers personal economics as part of The Post's financial team.

Dissenters, take note:

A New Reason to Question the Official Unemployment Rate

David Leonhardt
AUG. 26, 2014

The Labor Department’s monthly jobs report has been the subject of some wacky conspiracy theories. None was wackier than the suggestion from Jack Welch, the former General Electric chief executive, that government statisticians were exaggerating job growth during President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. Both Republican and Democratic economists dismissed those charges as silly.

But to call the people who compile the jobs report honest, nonpartisan civil servants is not to say that the jobs report is perfect. The report tries to estimate employment in a big country – and to do so quickly, to give policy makers, business executives and everyone else a sense of how the economy is performing. It’s a tough task.

And it has become tougher, because Americans are less willing to respond to surveys than they used to be.

A new academic paper suggests that the unemployment rate appears to have become less accurate over the last two decades, in part because of this rise in nonresponse. In particular, there seems to have been an increase in the number of people who once would have qualified as officially unemployed and today are considered out of the labor force, neither working nor looking for work.

[center]On the Road Again[/center]

The DOL Newsletter - October 6, 2011

DOL Data: There's an App for That
Have an iPhone, iPod Touch or Android phone? Now you can access the latest labor data and news from the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics and Employment and Training Administration in the palm of your hand. The latest free mobile app displays real-time updates to the unemployment rate, Unemployment Insurance initial claims, the Consumer Price Index, payroll employment, average hourly earnings, the Producer Price Index, the Employment Cost Index, productivity, the U.S. Import Price Index and the U.S. Export Price Index in real time, as they are published each week, month or quarter. News releases providing context for the data can also be accessed through the app and viewed within a mobile browser or as PDF documents.

US Labor Department launches economic and employment statistics app

Smartphone users gain mobile access to latest labor data and news

WASHINGTON — The most up-to-date employment data and economic news releases from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics and its Employment and Training Administration now can be viewed using a new mobile application.
....

The new app is currently available for the iPhone and iPod Touch as well as Android phones. The Labor Department is working to develop versions for BlackBerry and iPad devices. Visit http://m.dol.gov/apps/ to download this and other mobile apps.

Download the Data, Other Mobile Apps


[center]A Few More Things[/center]

Meet FRED, every wonk’s secret weapon

FRED stands for Federal Reserve Economic Data. It serves as an online clearinghouse for a wealth of numbers: unemployment rates, prices of goods, GDP and CPI, things common and obscure. Today, FRED is more than a little bit famous, thanks to the public’s fascination with economic data.

Federal Reserve Economic Data

So how many jobs must be created every month to have an effect on the unemployment rate? There's an app for that:

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Jobs Calculator™

Monthly Employment Reports from BLS

The U.S. Census Bureau has its own releases:

U.S. Census Bureau Latest News

U.S. Census Bureau Economic Indicators

Tomorrow's news before it happens. The schedule for all economic reports:

MarketWatch Economic Calendar

[BumRushDaShow]

1. Thanks for posting!

And am wondering if, given the holiday week (and earlier "spring break" vacation time - i.e., we had a bunch of folks in our office out on "vacation" about mid-March through to now), a state or states missed a cut off and didn't have data included. I vaguely recall in the past where that happened but the figure was revised to include the data the next month.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. I don't know. Since the figure is so low,

someone out there will have an answer. I'd start with The Wall Street Journal. blog.

As always, thank for reading this thread and for taking the time to write. I thoroughly enjoy this.

[greymattermom]

3. I hope I see a recent trend

Wages stable, hours worked increasing. That's a help, and in the next year, maybe wages will increase also. Unemployment is still above 7% where I live, but my daughter, who has been struggling for years, has a contract job starting soon that pays a lot more than the one she had last year.

[KingCharlemagne]

4. Not a good report. Half what the markets expected. - nt

[Fred Sanders]

7. Economists are unanimous....look at the long term trend, not one report...which is not that bad.

[Morganfleeman]

9. Maybe so

Maybe one month does not make a trend but this was the worst print in 2 years and the biggest miss relative to expectations since 2009. To boot there was a downward adjustment of 69,000 jobs for the previous 2 months.

Definitely bears watching.

[Fred Sanders]

10. Not maybe...the very definition of "trend" is not one month...relax, the corporate media has

basically ignored the last 12 months of reports...only to go full wailing on one.

[Purveyor]

5. Well that was ugly. Thanks for posting just the same.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. Unlike sundials, which "only count the sunny hours,"

I'm out here watching the skies when things could be better, too.



Thank you for being part of the thread.

[Historic NY]

8. Well its still in the plus +++ column...

remember when they weren't.

[progree]

11. Last month, Last 12 months, and since the jobs bottom 61 months ago

Thanks, mahatmakanejeeves, for the usual great report of the jobs report. Here are some of the key numbers for the past month, past year, and past 61 months (since the jobs recovery began)

Some key numbers from the Household Survey (note the Household Survey is different from the Establishment Survey that produces the payroll jobs of the first paragraph). See below, and see Table A-1 for the main Household Survey numbers - http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t01.htm

Exception: the payroll jobs numbers and the inflation-adjusted weekly earnings come from the Establishment Survey. I don't include the over-the-last-month figure for inflation-adjusted weekly earnings, because the CPI data needed for the inflation adjustment is not available until later in the month; but I do include them for the longer periods (over the last year and since the payroll jobs recovery began)

In the below tables, all "%" ones are percentage point changes, not percent increases or decreases. FOR EXAMPLE, when you see something like this:

-1.7% U-6 unemployment rate

It means that the U-6 unemployment rate dropped by 1.7 percentage points (this EXAMPLE is for the one year from November 2013 to November 2014, when U-6 dropped from 13.1% to 11.4%. This is a drop of 13.1 - 11.4 = 1.7 percentage points, *not* a 1.7% decrease. The corresponding percent change is (11.4-13.1)/13.1 X 100% = -12.98%, i.e. a 12.98% decrease. So in summary, IN THIS EXAMPLE, U-6 dropped by 1.7 percentage points, and also decreased by 12.98%.

Over the last month:
+126,000 Payroll Jobs (Establishment Survey, CES0000000001 )
- 96,000 Labor Force (employed + jobless people who have looked for work sometime in the last 4 weeks)
+ 34,000 Employed
-130,000 Unemployed (jobless people who have looked for work sometime in the last 4 weeks)
+0.0% Employment-To-Population Ratio aka Employment Rate (it's at 59.3%)
-0.1% LFPR (Labor Force Participation rate) ()
-0.0% Unemployment rate (at 5.5%). Is Unemployed (as defined above) / Labor Force [N864.HM].
-0.1% U-6 unemployment rate (to 10.9%) http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS13327709
+70,000 Part-Time Workers who want Full-Time Jobs (Table A-8's Part-Time For Economic Reasons)
-170,000 Part-Time Workers (Table A-9)
+190,000 Full-Time Workers (Table A-9)


Over the last year (last 12 months):
+3,128,000 Payroll Jobs (Establishment Survey, CES0000000001)
+ 726,000 Labor Force
+2,535,000 Employed
-1,809,000 Unemployed
+0.3% Employment-To-Population Ratio aka Employment Rate
-0.5% LFPR (Labor Force Participation rate) (ughh)
-1.1% Unemployment rate
-1.7% U-6 unemployment rate (fabulous. it includes anyone that looked for work even once in the past year)
-744,000 Part-Time Workers who want Full-Time Jobs (Table A-8's Part-Time For Economic Reasons)
-364,000 Part-Time Workers (Table A-9)
+2,962,000 Full-Time Workers (Table A-9)
+2.76% INFLATION ADJUSTED Weekly Earnings of Production and Non-Supervisory Workers ( CES0500000031 )
......... the weekly earnings percentage is 11 months thru February because no CPI data for March yet

The reason there's no data for March yet for the weekly earnings is because the CPI inflation adjustment number for March is not yet available. By the way, this and the payroll jobs numbers are the only numbers in the table above that comes from the Establishment Survey rather than the Household Survey.

All the "over the last year" numbers are really good numbers except the 0.5 percentage point drop in the Labor Force Participation Rate. Interesting though that there was a 0.3% percentage point increase in the Employment To Population Ratio. The Population being talked about is the civilian non-institutional population age 16 and over, yes, including all elderly people, even centenarians.

Part-Time Workers Who Want Full Time Jobs, as % of All Employed
[div style="display:inline; font-size:1.37em; font-family:monospace; white-space:pre;"]Mar'14 Dec'14 Feb'15 Mar'15
[div style="display:inline; font-size:1.37em; font-family:monospace; white-space:pre;"]5.1% 4.6% 4.5% 4.5%

Since the Payroll Job Recovery Began -- Last 61 months thru Mar 31, 2015: 3'15 - 2'10:
(This is the period from when continuous growth of payroll employment began, thru March 31, 2015)
+11,534,000 Payroll Jobs (Establishment Survey, CES0000000001)
+3,212,000 Labor Force
+9,750,000 Employed
-6,538,000 Unemployed
+0.8% Employment-To-Population Ratio aka Employment Rate (woo hoo!)
-2.2% LFPR (Labor Force Participation rate) (ughh)
-4.3% Unemployment rate
-6.1% U-6 unemployment rate
-2,231,000 Part-Time Workers who want Full-Time Jobs (Table A-8's Part-Time For Economic Reasons)
-326,000 Part-Time Workers (Table A-9)
+10,246,000 Full-Time Workers (Table A-9)
+4.21% INFLATION ADJUSTED Weekly Earnings of Production and Non-Supervisory Workers ( CES0500000031 )
......... the weekly earnings percentage is thru February 2015 because no CPI data for March yet

The links to the data above
# Payroll Jobs (Establishment Survey, http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0000000001
# Labor Force http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11000000
# Employed http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS12000000
# Unemployed http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS13000000
# Employment-To-Population Ratio aka Employment Rate http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS12300000
# LFPR (Labor Force Participation rate) http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
# Unemployment rate http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000
# U-6 unemployment rate http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS13327709
# Part-Time Workers who want Full-Time Jobs (Table A-8's Part-Time For Economic Reasons) http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS12032194
# Part-Time Workers (Table A-9) http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS12600000
# Full-Time Workers (Table A-9) http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS12500000
# INFLATION ADJUSTED Weekly Earnings of Production and Non-Supervisory Workers http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000031

-v-v--More discussion about this month's report at my sigline

[mahatmakanejeeves]

12. Oil and Gas Jobs Take a Hit in the March Jobs Report

Oil and Gas Jobs Take a Hit in the March Jobs Report

Economy
11:40 am ET Apr 3, 2015

By Jeffrey Sparshott

Lower oil prices are taking a toll on employment in the oil and gas sector.

Employment in mining, a category that includes oil and gas, fell by 11,000 in March. So far this year, the industry has lost 30,000 jobs. It added 41,000 jobs in 2014.

Support services include companies working on a contract or for set fees and may be the easiest to add or cut when times get tough.

The Labor Department on Friday said mining sector employment losses in the first quarter of this year have been concentrated in support activities.
....