(NECN) - How encouraged should we be about the latest jobless figures?
192,000 jobs were added in the month of March, but the jobless rate remained the same at 6.7 percent. Meanwhile, 500,000 Americans began a job search this month.
IHS Global Insight Chief US Economist Doug Handler joined NECN to discuss.
Handler said the numbers were along the lines of what was expected.
“We’re really looking at how many people are coming into the labor force and the labor force participation rate as well here, so people are confident, they can start looking for jobs. That’s an important prerequisite for getting growth later on in the year,” Handler explained.
In addition, Handler said that the weather may have affected the figures. Although, he says that it is important to look at the amount of hours worked to determine how much the weather prevented people from doing their jobs.
“The weather depressed economic growth in January and February as the snow made it difficult for people to get to work, to do their jobs in the like here, and now we have the rebound starting to emerge in the data in March here. So it really is having a profound impact,” he explained.
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Handler also talked about what to expect from the jobless figures in upcoming months.
