The U.S. economy added 228,000 jobs in March just as President Donald Trump’s announcement of across-the-board tariffs have sent the economy into free fall.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the unemployment rate jumped from 4.1 percent in February to 4.2 percent in March.
The report also showed that the health care sector added 54,000 jobs, while social assistance jobs jumped by increased by 24,000 jobs.
But the report also showed that federal government jobs dropped by 4,000 jobs in March, which comes after the federal government saw a job loss of 11,000 in February.
This comes as the Trump administration, led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has laid off numerous federal employees and Trump has sought to close the US Department of Education unilaterally without an act of Congress. March saw the highest number of layoffs since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, largely driven by DOGE.
In addition to the March report, the bureau revised down the number of jobs added in February from 151,000 to 117,000, a difference of 34,000 jobs. It also revised down the number of jobs added in January from 125,000 to 111,000 jobs, a difference of 14,000.
