916,000 Jobs Created in March

A report released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics details the impact of unemployment across the United States in March. With unemployment rates edging down to 6.0 percent and 916,000 jobs created, here are the key statistics.

Key Employment Statistics

1. 916,000 jobs created in March 2021

2. Unemployment lowers to 6.0 percent (0.2% lower than February 2021)

3. Number of temporary layoffs declined by 203,000

4. 21 percent of employees worked remotely (down 1.7% from February 2021)

5. Most Significant Improvement: Leisure and Hospitality, Education, Construction

916,000 Jobs Created in March as employment rises

While we are seeing moderate improvement in new employment year-over-year, the change month-over-month reflects only a 0.2 percent change. You can visualized changes in the following chart:

Unemployment Rate March 2021 (6.0%) vs. March 2020 (4.4%)

Job: Remote Work and the Pandemic

A detailed look at those teleworking due to the COVID-19 pandemic shows that 21% of employed persons worked remotely in March. This number is down from 22.7% in February. This number is contrasted by 11.4 million persons that reported they had been unable to work due to a closed business, or lost business in March.

Industry Breakdown

Employment in March was spread throughout many core industries. The most notable changes include the following industries.

Leisure and Hospitality show the largest increase (a common trend over the last 6 months) with 280,000 new jobs created. This happens as pandemic restrictions continue to loosen across the nation. Most increases are related to food services (176,000) with other notable increases for accommodation (40,000) and amusement, gambling, and recreation (64,000).

Construction employment shows notable gains in the amount of 10,000 new hires over the month. This is highly related to an increase by 65,000 in specialty trade contractors.

Business and Professional Services increased by 66,000 new jobs in March but is still down by ~685,000 from pre-pandemic conditions. Administrative and support services continued to rise month-over-month with 37,000 new jobs.

Manufacturing employment continued to rise in March with 53,000 jobs created split between durable goods (30,000) and non-durable goods (23,000).

Employment in healthcare and information had little change in March.

Overall we see that the nation as a whole continues to increase employment efforts each month. We expect this to continue throughout the next quarter.

If you’re looking to hire, begin your talent search. 

For a detailed look at salaries this year, see our 2021 Salary Guide.

Check our job board for regularly updated jobs in Consumer Packaged Goods, Food and Beverage Manufacturing, and Life Sciences.