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Payroll employment in March 2008

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend down in March (-80,000), and has fallen by 232,000 over the past 3 months.

[Chart data—TXT]

In March, job losses occurred in construction, manufacturing, and employment services. Employment in health care, food services, and mining remained on an upward trend.

Employment in construction declined by 51,000 in March and has fallen by 394,000 since its peak in September 2006. Manufacturing employment fell by 48,000 in March and by 310,000 over the past 12 months. Employment in motor vehicles and parts was down by 24,000 over the month, largely reflecting the impact of a strike in auto parts manufacturing.

The number of jobs in employment services declined by 42,000 between February and March. Employment services has lost 210,000 jobs since its most recent peak in August 2006.

Health care employment continued to expand in March, rising by 23,000. Over the past 12 months, health care has added 363,000 jobs. In March, food services employment continued to trend upward (23,000). Employment in the industry has increased by 288,000 over the past 12 months.

Employment in mining rose by 6,000 in March. Support activities for mining, particularly those related to oil and gas extraction, accounted for about two-thirds of the increase.

These data are from the BLS Current Employment Statistics program, and are seasonally adjusted. Data for the most recent two months are preliminary. More information can be found in "The Employment Situation: March 2008" (PDF) (HTML), news release USDL 08-0448.

Related TED article:

• Unemployment rate up in March 2008

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is an agency within the U.S. Department of Labor.