Employers added a weaker than expected 120,000 net new jobs in March, but the unemployment rate continued its downward trend, falling to 8.2 percent. Analysts had projected over 200,000 new jobs, but attribute at least some of the apparent slowdown to unseasonably warm winter weather:

The slower job growth shown in the establishment survey in March likely reflected the fact that good weather pulled forward a lot of hiring so that workers who might typically have been hired in March instead found jobs in January and February. This is most obviously the case in construction, which showed a loss of 7,000 jobs after showing an average gain of 13,000 in the prior three months. Weather may also explain the decline of 14,200 jobs in employment services (the broader temp category) after the sector added an average of 45,600 jobs the prior three months.

Tidbits of good news in the report include continued strength in manufacturing, improving employment numbers for African Americans, and a continued decline in unemployment duration. On the other hand, the tenth of a point drop in the unemployment rate was largely due to a decline in the overall size of the work force.