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Labor market adds 236,000 jobs in March, powering economy on

The March jobs numbers mark the 27th straight month of solid growth

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Updated April 7, 2023 at 11:23 a.m. EDT|Published April 7, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
Climax Packing Machinery in Ohio is holding on to its 26 employees and actively recruiting new ones because it has become so difficult to find workers. (Photos by Madeleine Hordinski for The Washington Post)
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Employers churned out 236,000 jobs in March, shoring up the economy through a period of increasing financial instability and inflation, as a resilient labor market continues to prop up the economy against all odds.

The unemployment rate ticked down to 3.5 percent last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, hovering near 50-year record lows, in part because more workers joined the workforce and some employers have held on to workers in a tight labor market.