New York (CNN) — Job growth remains plentiful at American businesses.
Employers added 303,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate fell to 3.8%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The total far surpasses economists’ expectations of 205,000 and for the jobless rate to fall from 3.9% to 3.8%, according to FactSet consensus estimates.
Friday’s jobs report showed that the US labor market remains remarkably resilient in the face of elevated interest rates and still-high inflation.
The US job market is also one of the strongest, historically: The economy has added jobs for 39 consecutive months, marking the fifth-longest period of job expansion on record, BLS data shows. The unemployment rate has been below 4% for 26 months in a row, the longest streak since the late 1960s.
A stronger-than-anticipated jobs report, combined with a recent batch of bumpy inflation data, could further complicate the Federal Reserve’s fight to rein in fast-rising prices, including potentially delaying rate cuts, Greg Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon, told CNN Business on Thursday.