Tolerable Toil

While March net job growth of just 103,000 was slightly disappointing, payback for last month’s great weather was inevitable. Importantly, monthly average job growth YTD is 202,000, very strong this late in the business cycle. The unemployment rate was unchanged, suggesting slack remains, and Y-o-Y wage growth ticked up to 2.7%. It’s slowly rising, with three of the top four readings since 6/09 occurring in the last seven months.