‘QUITE HOT’

U.S. Jobs Market Thumps Forecasts With 678,000 New Hires on Payrolls

The jobless rate also slipped to a pandemic low of just 3.8 percent.

The U.S. jobs market maintained its strong showing last month by adding 678,000 jobs—a figure way higher than economists had predicted. The jobless rate also slipped to just 3.8 percent, according to figures from the Labor Department that are the lowest since before the pandemic. However, CNN reports there are still 2.1 million fewer jobs than there were before the pandemic decimated the economy back in March 2020. Nick Bunker, an economist at Indeed, told The Wall Street Journal: “The labor market continues to be quite hot... It looks like the labor market is still primed for lots of strong employment growth.” The figures were recorded before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the subsequent spike in oil prices could hit next month’s jobs numbers.