US Payrolls Increase Below Expectations

Published on:
12 September 2006 at 10:19 a.m. ET

Written by: Unknown Author –

http://www.insidearm.com/news/00006252-us-payrolls-increase-below-expectations/

U.S. employers added 110,000 workers to their payrolls in March, the government said on Friday, an unexpectedly weak increase that some economists said may lessen chances the Federal Reserve will speed up the rate of its interest rate increases.

At the same time, the unemployment rate fell to 5.2% from 5.4%, the Labor Department reported. However, the increase in March payrolls was well short of Wall Street expectations. Economists were expecting payroll employment to rise by 221,000 in March.

The government’s separate household survey of people out of work continued to show contradictory signs.

A surge in employment in the household survey caused the unemployment rate to decline to 5.2% in March from 5.4% in February.

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