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Jobless rate off in March to 4.4%

WASHINGTON - If you were looking for a job as a teacher last month, you were in luck. Same for health workers, retail clerks and building contractors.

WASHINGTON - If you were looking for a job as a teacher last month, you were in luck. Same for health workers, retail clerks and building contractors.

All told, the economy added 180,000 jobs, dropping unemployment to a 4.4 percent rate that matched a five-year low.

The mostly positive snapshot of the nation's employment climate, released by the Labor Department yesterday, showed that companies ramped up hiring and paid workers more. That's good news for employees and job-seekers, and bodes well for the national economy, too, which is working its way through a sluggish spell and a painful housing slump.

"For most people, the job market is still hitting on a lot of cylinders, especially for people who are willing to upgrade their skills. It is not leaving a large number of people stranded," said John Challenger, chief of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an employment research firm. "But there are pockets where people are having a difficult time."

Those include people looking for work at factories, where jobs were cut in March for the ninth straight month. Makers of autos, furniture, clothing and textiles eliminated jobs last month. Another soft spot: residential construction, a casualty of the housing slump.

But there were many more job winners than losers. Construction jobs led the way, especially for contractors and for commercial building. Retailers, health-care providers, educational services, and leisure and hospitality companies were among those boosting their payrolls.

"Businesses have a very good appetite for hiring workers. The job market is sturdy," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "It is a good time to be looking for a job, particularly if you have skills and education."

Plentiful jobs and bigger paychecks are giving more people the means to spend, helping prevent the housing recession from spreading to the rest of the economy. The report takes some of the pressure off Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to cut interest rates. Bonds tumbled, and the dollar jumped.

"The expansion is going to keep rolling," said Bill Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services Inc. in Boston. "The Fed isn't going to move rates any time this year."

Unemployment fell from 4.5 percent in February to 4.4 percent in March, matching the rate in October, which was the lowest in five years. The unemployment rate for Hispanics dropped to 5.1 percent, a three-month low, while the rate for blacks climbed to 8.3 percent, a three-month high. The rate for women held steady at 3.8 percent. The rate for men declined to 4 percent.

The economy ended up adding 32,000 more jobs in January and February combined than the government had estimated a month ago. Economists called that encouraging.

Workers' paychecks grew last month. Average hourly earnings climbed to $17.22, from $16.55 a year earlier.

That is a healthy 4 percent increase, a rate considered good for workers and consumer spending, which is indispensable to the economy's good health. A faster pickup - if prolonged and not blunted by other economic forces - can raise fears about inflation.

Spiraling inflation would whittle away any wage gains, hurting workers' wallets. The Federal Reserve's biggest concern is that inflation could flare up.

Even so, many economists predict that the Fed will keep interest rates where they are for much of this year.

In March, there were some challenges for job-seekers, too. For one thing, the job hunt got longer.

The average time that the 6.7 million unemployed people spent in their job searches was 17.3 weeks in March, compared with 16.4 weeks in February.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said the employment figures were a testament to the Bush administration's policies and U.S. workers' drive. "We need to stay focused on job training," Gutierrez said.

President Bush's own job performance rating remains low. A new AP-Ipsos poll found that just 38 percent approve of the president's stewardship of the economy, and 60 percent disapprove.

Democrats are proposing bills aimed at closing the gap between low- and high-income workers, and making it easier for workers to form unions against company wishes. They are also taking a harder stance with respect to the administration's free-trade deals.

Jobs Scorecard

The economy added 180,000 jobs in March. These are some of the industries that gained and lost jobs.

Winners

Construction: Added 56,000 jobs.

Retailers: 35,900.

Health care: 29,500.

Educational services: 15,800.

Leisure and hospitality: 21,000.

Losers

Factories: Cut 16,000 jobs.

Telecommunications: 6,200.

Rental and leasing companies: 5,200.

Accounting and bookkeeping services: 4,900.

Janitors and maintenance workers: 3,700.

SOURCE: Associated Press

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