Jobs Report Highlights: Disappointing News For Most, Except For Women

After President Donald Trump boasted about a hefty jobs report in February, the jobs report for March, which was released Friday, had mixed and somewhat disappointing results. About 98,000 jobs were added to the economy, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, despite economists’ predictions of an additional 180,000 jobs.

That was a large drop from February, which saw 238,000 jobs added to the U.S. economy.

Trump has made job creation one of the central goals of his presidency. In January, he pledged to create 25 million jobs in 10 years, which would amount to 208,000 jobs added to the economy per month.

Read: Jobs Moving To Mexico Under Trump Despite POTUS' 'American First' Push

Here are some other highlights from the jobs report.

General Notes

The unemployment rate dropped to 4.5 percent — down from 4.7 percent in February. This is mostly good news for women, who saw their unemployment rate drop from 4.3 percent to 4 percent. But for men, the unemployment rate stayed steady at 4.3 percent.

However, the unemployment rate remains high for black Americans. Their unemployment rate was 8 percent in March, a 0.1 percent drop from February.

People of Hispanic and Latino ethnicities saw the biggest drop in unemployment rates from February (5.6 percent) to March (5.1 percent).

By Industry

The construction industry faced bad news. Although jobs were added in March, there the industry saw a dramatic slowdown. It created 6,000 jobs in March, down from 59,000 in February.

Manufacturing also saw a dip in the number of jobs created. In March, 11,000 manufacturing jobs were created, whereas in February, 26,000 jobs were created.

Retail trade didn’t see good numbers in February (30,900 jobs were lost), and that was true again in March (29,700 jobs were lost).

Job growth for education and health services also decelerated fairly dramatically. Those industries added 66,000 in February, but in March, only 16,000 jobs were added.

Professional and business services, however, saw a bright spot. About 56,000 jobs were added in March, up from 36,000 added in February.

There is a full report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics website.