March Jobs Report: US Employment Increases by 178,000 as Unemployment Rate Falls Slightly to 4.3%

U.S. nonfarm payroll employment increased by 178,000 in March, after the February figure was revised from -92,000 to -133,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) March 2026 Employment Situation report.

The unemployment rate inched down 0.1 percentage points to 4.3%. Year over year, the rate is up 0.1 percentage points.

“Recent months have had unusually large swings in employment – a choppy trend that obscures baseline conditions of a low-hire, low-fire labor market,” says Appcast Chief Economist Andrew Flowers. “The word resilience gets thrown around a lot, but it’s merited. Despite the rollercoaster readings of recent months, and the Iran war triggering deep economic turbulence last month, the underlying labor market trends over the past year have remained intact.”

By industry, health care (76,400), leisure and hospitality (44,000), construction (26,000) and transportation and warehousing (21,000) posted notable job gains. Financial activities (-15,000) and federal government (-18,000) reported large job losses.

Durable goods manufacturing added 15,000 jobs, while nondurable goods manufacturing reported no change.

By manufacturing sector, transportation equipment manufacturing (6,500) and fabricated metal product manufacturing (5,200) posted the largest job gains, while chemical manufacturing (-5,200) and furniture and related product manufacturing (-2,000) reported the largest job losses, according to the BLS industry sector data.