Employment Situation

March 2025

Released April 04, 2025

From February 2025 to March 2025:

• Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 228K.
  • Private sector payroll employment increased by 209K.
  • Government payroll employment increased by 19K.
• The headline unemployment rate (U-3) increased by 0.1 percentage points to 4.2 percent.
  • The broadest measure of unemployment (U-6, which adds underemployment to unemployment), decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 7.9 percent.
• The labor force participation rate (LFPR) increased by 0.1 percentage points to 62.5 percent.

From February 2025 to March 2025:

• The best performing sectors were Education and Health Services (+77K) and Trade, Transportation, and Utilities (+48K).
• The worst performing sectors were Information (-2K) and Mining and Logging (-2K).

From March 2024 to March 2025:

• The best performing sectors were Education and Health Services (+916K) and Government (+311K).
• The worst performing sectors were Manufacturing (-74K) and Professional and Business Services (-48K).

From March 2024 to March 2025:

• For all employees on private nonfarm payrolls:
  • Average nominal weekly earnings increased by 3.23 percent.
  • Average nominal hourly earnings increased by 3.84 percent.
• For production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls:
  • Average nominal weekly earnings increased by 3.89 percent.
  • Average nominal hourly earnings increased by 3.89 percent.

Table 1. Labor Indicators

	Mar 2025	Feb 2025	M/M change	Mar 2024	Y/Y change
Payroll jobs
Nonfarm	159.398M	159.170M	228K	157.517M	1.881M
Private	135.786M	135.577M	209K	134.216M	1.570M
Unemployment
Official rate (U-3)	4.2%	4.1%	0.1pp	3.9%	0.3pp
Broader rate (U-6)	7.9%	8.0%	-0.1pp	7.3%	0.6pp
Labor force participation rate
16 years and over	62.5%	62.4%	0.1pp	62.7%	-0.2pp
Prime age (25-54 years)	83.3%	83.5%	-0.2pp	83.4%	-0.1pp
Employment-to-Population Ratio	59.9%	59.9%	0.0pp	60.3%	-0.4pp

Table 2. Earnings Indicators

	Mar 2025	Feb 2025	M/M change	Mar 2024	Y/Y change
Production and non-supervisory
Hourly earnings	$30.96	$30.91	0.16%	$29.80	3.89%
Weekly earnings	$1,046.45	$1,038.58	0.76%	$1,007.24	3.89%
All employees
Hourly earnings	$36.00	$35.91	0.25%	$34.67	3.84%
Weekly earnings	$1,231.20	$1,228.12	0.25%	$1,192.65	3.23%

Table 3. Revisions

	1st	2nd	3rd	Net revision
Nonfarm jobs added
February 2025	151K	117K		-34K
January 2025	143K	125K	111K	-32K
December 2024	256K	307K	323K	67K

Table 4. Comparison to ADP Estimate

	BLS	ADP	Difference
Private nonfarm jobs added	209K	155K	54K

Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey

February 2025

Released April 01, 2025

Job Openings: The total number of nonfarm job openings decreased by 194K to 7.57 million, and the rate decreased by 0.2 percentage points to 4.5 percent.

• The best performing sectors were professional and business services (+134K) and construction (+22K).
• The worst performing sectors were trade, transportation, and utilities (-163K) and financial activities (-80K).

Hires: The total number of nonfarm hires increased by 25K to 5.40 million, and the rate remained unchanged at 3.4 percent.

• The best performing sectors were professional and business services (+82K) and financial activities (+14K).
• The worst performing sectors were private education and health services (-21K) and leisure and hospitality (-18K).

Separations: The total number of nonfarm separations decreased by 11K to 5.26 million, and the rate remained unchanged at 3.3 percent.

• Quits decreased by 61K to 3.19 million, and the rate remained unchanged at 2 percent.
• Layoffs and discharges increased by 116K to 1.79 million, and the rate remained unchanged at 1.1 percent.
• Other separations decreased by 67K to 275K, and the rate remained unchanged at 0.2 percent.

Table 5. JOLTS Level Indicators

	Feb 2025	Jan 2025	M/M change	Feb 2024	Y/Y change
Job openings level
Nonfarm	7.568M	7.762M	-194K	8.445M	-877K
Private	6.667M	6.860M	-193K	7.521M	-854K
Hire level
Nonfarm	5.396M	5.371M	25K	5.664M	-268K
Private	5.046M	5.000M	46K	5.277M	-231K
Separation level
Nonfarm	5.261M	5.272M	-11K	5.476M	-215K
Private	4.915M	4.959M	-44K	5.146M	-231K

Table 6. JOLTS Rate Indicators

	Feb 2025	Jan 2025	M/M change	Feb 2024	Y/Y change
Job openings rate
Nonfarm	4.5%	4.7%	-0.2pp	5.1%	-0.6pp
Private	4.7%	4.8%	-0.1pp	5.3%	-0.6pp
Hire rate
Nonfarm	3.4%	3.4%	0.0pp	3.6%	-0.2pp
Private	3.7%	3.7%	0.0pp	3.9%	-0.2pp
Separation rate
Nonfarm	3.3%	3.3%	0.0pp	3.5%	-0.2pp
Private	3.6%	3.7%	-0.1pp	3.8%	-0.2pp

Upcoming releases

Date	Time	Release	Data source
Apr 07	10:00 AM	Monthly Debt Update, April 2025	U.S. Treasury
Apr 10	08:30 AM	Monthly Inflation Update, March 2025	Bureau of Labor Statistics
Apr 11	10:00 AM	Monthly Fiscal Update, March 2025	U.S. Treasury
Apr 18	10:00 AM	State Employment Update, March 2025	Bureau of Labor Statistics
Apr 30	08:30 AM	Monthly GDP Update, Q1 2025 Advance Estimate	Bureau of Economic Analysis
Apr 30	10:00 AM	Monthly Expenditures Update, March 2025	Bureau of Economic Analysis
May 02	08:30 AM	Monthly Employment Update, April 2025	Bureau of Labor Statistics

Notes

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics; JEC Republicans calculations

“pp” = percentage points; “M/M” = month over month; “Y/Y” = year over year

Consistent with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, monthly figures are seasonally adjusted. Discrepancy in change figures is possible due to rounding.