US adds 236,000 jobs in March, unemployment falls to 3.5%

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) – The US economy added 236,000 jobs in March, slightly lower than market estimates, while the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, the Labor Department announced on Friday.

The market expectation for nonfarm payrolls was a 239,000 gain in March.

Job additions for February was revised up by 15,000, from 311,000 to 326,000, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The unemployment rate fell to 3.5% in March, from 3.6% in February, while the market estimate for it was to remain unchanged at 3.6%.

The number of unemployed people in the US showed little change in March, slightly falling to 5.8 million, from 5.9 million the month before.

Both the labor force participation rate at 62.6% and the employment-population ratio at 60.4% were also little changed last month.