The US economy added a higher-than-expected 178,000 jobs last month

[LetMyPeopleVote]

9. MaddowBlog-Job growth improved in March, following a sharp decline in February

The U.S. economy has now added 321,000 jobs over Trump’s 15-month second term. Over the previous 15 months, the economy added roughly 1.9 million jobs.

The new job numbers look good, but I’m mindful of the larger context:

Job growth during the first 15 months of Trump’s second term: 321,000 jobs

Job growth during the last 15 months of Biden’s term: 1.9 million jobs

The Trump White House has no explanation for this.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-04-03T13:04:24.025Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/jobs-report-march-unemployment

Expectations heading into this week showed projections of about 59,000 new jobs being created in the United States in March. As it turns out, according to the new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the totals exceeded those expectations. CNBC reported:

Nonfarm payrolls rose a seasonally adjusted 178,000 during the month, a reversal from the 133,000 decline in February and better than the Dow Jones consensus estimate for 59,000, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. February’s number was revised down by 41,000 while January was revised up by 34,000 to 160,000, putting the three-month average around 68,000.

With job creation higher, the unemployment rate edged lower to 4.3%.

It’s worth emphasizing for context that a major nursing strike in California and Hawaii depressed payrolls in February by tens of thousands of jobs, and now that those labor disputes have been resolved, those now count as new jobs in March. Still, 178,000 is a good overall number.....

To contextualize the data, MS NOW put together this chart showing month-to-month totals since the 2020 election. The blue columns point to Biden’s presidency, while the red columns point to Trump’s.

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It remains to be seen whether the president responds to the trend by firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (again).