WASHINGTON — Employers continued creating new jobs at a steady pace in March, according to new data, driving the unemployment rate down a tick and confirming that the job-market recovery, while slow, remains underway.
The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate dropped to 8.8 percent last month, the lowest in two years and down from 8.9 percent the month before. That came as employers added 216,000 net jobs, higher than the revised 194,000 gain in February and above the 190,000 in new jobs that analysts had expected.
The report hardly showed gangbuster job creation, but it confirms an ongoing economic expansion and the fact that employers are adding jobs at a pace that is likely to chip away at the nation’s yawning unemployment problem over time. The steady-as-she-goes report helps assuage fears that turmoil in the Middle East, higher fuel prices or other factors are steering the U.S. recovery off course, despite some uneven economic data recently.
Financial markets reacted positively to the news: the Dow Jones industrial average rose 56.99 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 12,376.72. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 6.58 points to close at 1,332.41.
Following the fourth consecutive month of declines, the unemployment rate is a full percentage point lower than it was in November. And the three-month average pace of private-sector job growth reached its highest level since 2006.
“The recovery in employment is here to stay,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at California State University.
A separate report Friday showed continued strong growth in the manufacturing sector, with the Institute for Supply Management’s index of activity at the nation’s factories edging down to 61.2 from 61.4. Numbers above 50 indicate expansion.
In the details of the Labor Department report, there was not much to love but plenty to like. The improvement in the unemployment rate was attributed to the 291,000 additional workers who described themselves as having a job, rather than people giving up their job searches out of frustration.
A broader measure of unemployment — which also captures discouraged people who have given up looking for work and those who are working part time but want a full-time job — fell to 15.7 percent, from 15.9 percent.
The length of the average workweek rose to 33.6 hours, from 33.5, allowing those who already were working to take home more income (though in a less promising sign, average hourly earnings dropped).
