US: Rebound in March employment growth - RBC

Josh Nye, senior economist at Royal Bank of Canada, notes that the US payroll employment rose 196,000 in March, slightly ahead of expectations after a surprisingly weak 33,000 gain in February.

Key Quotes

“Average job growth of 180,000 for the first quarter is solid, but slower than we saw throughout 2018.”

“The unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.8%, having flattened out over much of the last year.”

“Wage growth edged down to 3.2% year-over-year but is still close to cycle highs.”

“Another quarter of robust job gains supports our view that the slowdown in Q1 GDP growth will be transitory (as we’ve seen in other years when the US economy seems to get off to a slow start).”