Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 6, 1990 TAG: 9004060961
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A9 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The nation's manufacturing slump continued, with a loss of 30,000 factory jobs in March, the Labor Department said in releasing the unemployment report, the first comprehensive look at economic activity for the month.
That brought manufacturing job losses to 100,000 since November and 250,000 over the past year, the department said.
Most analysts had been predicting that the economy would produce around 170,000 new jobs last month. The 26,000 new jobs was the fewest produced since June 1986 when 110,000 jobs were lost, the government said.
More than 350,000 each were produced in January and February.
The government's household survey said total employment rose slightly in March to 118.3 million and that the labor force edged up to about 124.8 million.
The Labor Department surveys businesses for statistics on job gains and losses.
The losses were offset by gains in the services industries, which added 125,000 jobs, and the federal government, which added 75,000 Census Bureau workers and other employees.
The government said that for the first quarter, there were about 750,000 so-called discouraged workers, or people who have given up looking for jobs. That was the lowest level since the first quarter of 1979.
Michael Evans, who heads an economics firm in Washington, said unemployment fell despite the weaker-than-expected increase in jobs because the government's figures typically lag and reflect a previous month's activity. That means the fewer jobless Americans in March benefited from the healthy gains earlier in the year.
by CNB