Investing.com – The U.S labor market showed signs of weakness after an unexpected rise in the unemployment rate, although the economy created more jobs than expected, according to official data released on Friday.
Non-farm payrolls increased by 215,000 jobs in March, compared to the rise of 236,000 in February that was revised from the initial reading of 242,000. The data beat the consensus estimate for the creation of 205,000 jobs.
The jobless rate rose to 5.0%, compared to the prior 4.9%. Analysts expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged.
The participation rate increased slightly to 63.0%, from the prior 62.9% in February.
Additionally, the private sector created fewer of the new job contracts than expected with a total of 195,000, compared to consensus expectations of 197,000.
Government payrolls rose by 20,000, compared to the creation of 9,000 public jobs that occurred in February, revised down from an initial reading of 12,000.
Average hourly earnings rose month-on-month by 0.3%, compared to the prior drop of 0.1% and coming in above the analyst estimate of a 0.2% increase.
Furthermore, the average weekly hours remained unchanged at 34.4, while the consensus had expected them to rise to 34.5.
U.S. futures moved down and, at 12:59GMT or 8:59AM ET, the blue-chip Dow futures slipped 0.56%, S&P 500 futures dropped 0.61% and the Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.64%.
The dollar moved higher after the release, with the U.S. Dollar Index paring losses at 94.61, compared to 94.40 earlier at 13:03GMT or 9:03AM ET. EUR/USD traded at 1.1406, from 1.1424 before the release and GBP/USD was at 1.4236, compared to the previous 1.4301. The outlier was the USD/JPY trading at 111.95, from 112.03 prior to the release.