Another Quarter of Weak GDP and Strong Employment Growth

Comment on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Report By Gad Levanon, Chief Economist, North America, The Conference Board

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The Conference Board

Apr 01, 2016, 09:28 ET

NEW YORK, April 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Following a 245,000 job gain in February, the economy generated 215,000 jobs in March.

Despite weak economic growth in the last two quarters, employers kept hiring at a solid pace in the first quarter, which is likely to be one of very low, perhaps even negative, labor productivity growth. Moving forward, we expect the weak GDP growth to translate into slower employment growth.

The unemployment rate went up to 5.0 percent, but for good reasons, as more people are starting to look for jobs again. The labor force participation rate increased by a whopping 0.6 percentage points since September. As the labor markets get tighter, the downward trend in the unemployment rate is naturally becoming more moderate. However, even moderate job growth is likely to be enough to continue to tighten the labor market.

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