By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- The U.S. economy shed 701,000 jobs in the month to mid-March, the government said in a monthly labor market report that largely predates any impact from the Covid-19 pandemic on the U.S. economy.
The figures, normally the most eagerly-awaited data of the month in global financial markets, have already been rendered largely meaningless by the unprecedented spike in jobless claims over the subsequent two weeks. Nearly 10 million Americans – 6% of a total workforce of 164 million - have filed for unemployment benefit since the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ cut-off date of March 12.
Analysts had expected a drop of 100,000 in overall employment, according to an Investing.com poll, roughly in line with figures reported by private payrolls processor ADP (NASDAQ:ADP) earlier in the week.
According to the government’s data, the unemployment rate rose to 4.4% from a multi-year low of 3.5%, above forecasts for a rate of 3.8%. Average hourly earnings growth accelerated to 3.1%, while weekly hours worked fell to 34.2 from 34.4.