Hiring Streak in US Sets an 80-Year Record

Despite red-hot inflation, US employers kept hiring at a solid pace in March. The key numbers:

• Jobs: Employers added 431,000 jobs for the month, coming in a bit shy of expectations of about 490,000. However, the Wall Street Journal points out this marks 11 straight months with gains of more than 400,000, the longest streak in records going back to 1939.
• Rate: The unemployment rate fell from 3.8% to 3.6%, close to the 50-year low of 3.5% hit just before the pandemic struck, per the AP.
• Wages: Average hourly earnings rose 0.4% on the month, about as expected.

• The peak? "The job market feels like it’s rip-roaring," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, tells CNBC. "The job market is a machine. It’s been turning over a half-million, give or take for a year... We can’t maintain this pace for very long or else we’re going to overheat."
• All-around: The leisure and hospitality sectors continue to drive the gains, but, really, "we're seeing jobs gains across most of the sectors," says State Street strategist Marvin Loh. Two other factors: More retirees are returning to the workforce, and household savings are declining, perhaps giving people a nudge to return to work, per the Journal.