US economy adds more jobs than expected in March

(Sharecast News) - The US economy added more jobs than expected in March, while the unemployment rate ticked lower, according to figures released on Friday by the Commerce Department. Non-farm payrolls rose by 303,000 last month, coming in well ahead of consensus expectations for a 200,000 increase.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate nudged down to 3.8% in March from 3.9% a month earlier, versus expectations for it to be unchanged, with the number of people out of work declining by 29,000 to 6.4m.

The data also showed that average hourly earnings rose 4.1% over the last year.