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Payroll jump disappoints

Employers in March added the fewest workers since December 2013 and the jobless rate held at 5.5 percent as companies sought to bring U.S. headcounts in line with an economy that throttled back at the start of the year.

By Shobhana Chandra | Updated on April 03, 2015
(AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

(Bloomberg) — Employers in March added the fewest workers since December 2013 and the jobless rate held at 5.5 percent as companies sought to bring headcounts in line with an economy that throttled back at the start of the year.

The 126,000 increase was weaker than the most pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg survey and followed a 264,000 gain a month earlier that was smaller than initially reported, the Labor Department in Washington said. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 245,000 advance. Average hourly earnings rose 2.1 percent from a year earlier.

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