Daily Roundup of Key US Economic Data for April 3

10:11 AM EDT, 04/03/2026 (MT Newswires) -- The March employment report showed improvement after the February softness, with payrolls growth much stronger than expected, the unemployment rate down, but hourly earnings growth slower.

Nonfarm payrolls rose by 178,000 in March after a downwardly-revised 133,000-jobs decline in February and an upwardly-revised 160,000 gain in January. Private payrolls rose by 186,000, also well above expectations and following a 129,000 decline in February.

Health care jobs rose by 89,900 while leisure and hospitality jobs rose by 44,000 and transportation and warehousing jobs increased by 21,000.

The unemployment rate fell to 4.3% from 4.4% in February, with mixed details. The labor force fell by 396,000 as labor force participation contracted. Household employment fell by 64,000 while the number of unemployed plunged by 332,000.

Average hourly earnings were up only 0.2% in March, slower than a 0.4% increase in February, slowing the year-over-year rate to 3.5% from 3.8%.

The S&P Global nonmanufacturing index was revised lower in March to 49.8 from the flash 51.1 estimate and was below the 51.7 reading in February.

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