THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION -- March 2026


Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 178,000 in March, and the unemployment rate
changed little at 4.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains
occurred in health care, in construction, and in transportation and warehousing. Federal
government employment continued to decline.

This news release presents statistics from two monthly surveys. The household survey measures
labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic characteristics. The establishment
survey measures nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings by industry. For more information
about the concepts and statistical methodology used in these two surveys, see the Technical
Note.

Household Survey Data

Both the unemployment rate, at 4.3 percent, and the number of unemployed people, at 7.2
million, changed little in March. These measures also changed little over the year. (See table
A-1.)

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for people who are Asian (3.7 percent)
decreased in March. The jobless rates for adult men (3.8 percent), adult women (4.0 percent),
teenagers (13.7 percent), and people who are White (3.6 percent), Black (7.1 percent), or
Hispanic (4.8 percent) showed little change over the month. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) changed little at 1.8
million in March but is up by 322,000 over the year. The long-term unemployed accounted for
25.4 percent of all unemployed people in March. (See table A-12.)

Both the labor force participation rate, at 61.9 percent, and the employment-population ratio,
at 59.2 percent, changed little in March. These measures also showed little change over the
year, after accounting for annual population control adjustments. (See table A-1.) 

The number of people employed part time for economic reasons, at 4.5 million, changed little
in March. These individuals would have preferred full-time employment but were working part
time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs. (See
table A-8.)

The number of people not in the labor force who currently want a job changed little at 6.0
million in March. These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not
actively looking for work during the 4 weeks preceding the survey or were unavailable to take
a job. (See table A-1.)

Among those not in the labor force who wanted a job, the number of people marginally attached
to the labor force increased by 325,000 in March to 1.9 million. These individuals wanted and
were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months but had not
looked for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. The number of discouraged workers, a
subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, increased
by 144,000 in March to 510,000. (See Summary table A.)

Establishment Survey Data

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 178,000 in March, following a decrease in
February (-133,000). In March, job gains occurred in health care, in construction, and in
transportation and warehousing. Federal government employment continued to decline. Payroll
employment had changed little on net over the prior 12 months. (See table B-1.)

Health care added 76,000 jobs in March. Employment in ambulatory health care services rose by
54,000, reflecting an increase of 35,000 in offices of physicians as workers returned from a
strike. Employment also increased in hospitals (+15,000). Over the prior 12 months, health
care had added an average of 29,000 jobs per month. 

Employment in construction grew by 26,000 in March but had shown little net change over the
prior 12 months.

In March, transportation and warehousing added 21,000 jobs, reflecting a gain in couriers and
messengers (+20,000). Employment in transportation and warehousing is down by 139,000 since
reaching a peak in February 2025.

Employment in social assistance continued its upward trend in March (+14,000), primarily in
individual and family services (+11,000).

Federal government employment continued to decline in March (-18,000). Since reaching a peak
in October 2024, federal government employment is down by 355,000, or 11.8 percent. Federal
employees on furlough during the partial government shutdown were counted as employed in the
establishment survey because they worked or received (or will receive) pay for the pay period
that included the 12th of the month.

Employment in financial activities edged down by 15,000 in March, reflecting a loss in finance
and insurance (-16,000). Employment in financial activities is down by 77,000 since reaching a
peak in May 2025.

Employment showed little change over the month in other major industries, including mining,
quarrying, and oil and gas extraction; manufacturing; wholesale trade; retail trade;
information; professional and business services; leisure and hospitality; and other services.

In March, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 9
cents, or 0.2 percent, to $37.38. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 3.5
percent. In March, average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory
employees edged up by 5 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $32.07. (See tables B-3 and B-8.)

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged down by 0.1 hour to
34.2 hours in March. In manufacturing, the average workweek was unchanged at 40.2 hours, and
overtime was also unchanged at 3.0 hours. The average workweek for production and
nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls remained at 33.8 hours. (See tables B-2
and B-7.)

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for January was revised up by 34,000, from
+126,000 to +160,000, and the change for February was revised down by 41,000, from -92,000 to
-133,000. With these revisions, employment in January and February combined is 7,000 lower
than previously reported. (Monthly revisions result from additional reports received from 
businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from the
recalculation of seasonal factors.)

_____________
The Employment Situation for April is scheduled to be released on Friday, May 8, 2026,
at 8:30 a.m. (ET).

Frequently Asked Questions about Employment and Unemployment Estimates

1. Why are there two monthly measures of employment?

   The household survey and establishment survey both produce sample-based estimates
   of employment, and both have strengths and limitations. The establishment survey
   employment series has a smaller margin of error on the measurement of month-to-
   month change than the household survey because of its much larger sample size. An
   over-the-month employment change of about 122,000 is statistically significant in
   the establishment survey, while the threshold for a statistically significant change
   in the household survey is about 650,000. However, the household survey has a more
   expansive scope than the establishment survey because it includes self-employed
   workers whose businesses are unincorporated, unpaid family workers, agricultural
   workers, and private household workers, who are excluded by the establishment survey.
   The household survey also provides estimates of employment for demographic groups.
   For more information on the differences between the two surveys, please visit
   www.bls.gov/web/empsit/ces_cps_trends.htm.

2. Are undocumented immigrants counted in the surveys?

   It is likely that both surveys include at least some undocumented immigrants. However,
   neither the establishment nor the household survey is designed to identify the legal
   status of workers. Therefore, it is not possible to determine how many are counted in
   either survey. The establishment survey does not collect data on the legal status of
   workers. The household survey does include questions which identify the foreign and
   native born, but it does not include questions about the legal status of the foreign
   born. Data on the foreign and native born are published each month in table A-7 of
   The Employment Situation news release.

3. Why does the establishment survey have revisions?

   The establishment survey revises published estimates to improve its data series by
   incorporating additional information that was not available at the time of the
   initial publication of the estimates. The establishment survey revises its initial
   monthly estimates twice, in the immediately succeeding 2 months, to incorporate
   additional sample receipts from respondents in the survey and recalculated seasonal
   adjustment factors. For more information on the monthly revisions, please visit
   www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cestn.htm#Revisions-Between-Preliminary-and-Final-Data.

   On an annual basis, the establishment survey incorporates a benchmark revision that
   re-anchors estimates to nearly complete employment counts available from unemployment
   insurance tax records. The benchmark helps to control for sampling and modeling errors
   in the estimates. For more information on the annual benchmark revision, please visit
   www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cesbmart.htm.

4. Does the establishment survey sample include small firms?

   Yes. About 46 percent of the establishment survey sample is comprised of business
   establishments with fewer than 20 employees. The establishment survey sample is
   designed to maximize the reliability of the statewide total nonfarm employment
   estimate; firms from all states, size classes, and industries are appropriately
   sampled to achieve that goal.

5. Does the establishment survey account for employment from new businesses?

   Yes. Monthly establishment survey estimates include an adjustment to account for
   the net employment change generated by business births and deaths. The adjustment
   comes from an econometric model that forecasts the monthly net jobs impact of
   business births and deaths based on the actual past values of the net impact that
   can be observed with a lag from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. The
   establishment survey uses modeling rather than sampling for this purpose because
   the survey is not immediately able to bring new businesses into the sample. There
   is an unavoidable lag between the birth of a new firm and its appearance on the
   sampling frame and availability for selection. BLS adds new businesses to the survey
   twice a year. More information on business births and deaths in the establishment
   survey is available at www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cesbd.htm.

6. Is the count of unemployed people limited to just those receiving unemployment
   insurance benefits?

   No. The estimate of unemployment is based on a monthly sample survey of households.
   All people who are without jobs and are actively seeking and available to work are
   included among the unemployed. (People on temporary layoff are included even if
   they do not actively seek work.) There is no requirement or question relating to
   unemployment insurance benefits in the monthly survey.

7. Does the official unemployment rate exclude people who want a job but are not currently
   looking for work?

   Yes. However, there are separate estimates of people outside the labor force who
   want a job, including those who are not currently looking because they believe no
   jobs are available (discouraged workers). In addition, alternative measures of labor
   underutilization (some of which include discouraged workers and other groups not
   officially counted as unemployed) are published each month in table A-15 of The
   Employment Situation news release. For more information about these alternative
   measures, please visit www.bls.gov/cps/lfcharacteristics.htm#altmeasures.

8. How can unusually severe weather affect employment and hours estimates?

   In the establishment survey, the reference period is the pay period that includes
   the 12th of the month. Unusually severe weather is more likely to have an impact on
   average weekly hours than on employment. Average weekly hours are estimated for paid
   time during the pay period, including pay for holidays, sick leave, or other time off.
   The impact of severe weather on hours estimates typically, but not always, results in
   a reduction in average weekly hours. For example, some employees may be off work for
   part of the pay period and not receive pay for the time missed, while some workers,
   such as those dealing with cleanup or repair, may work extra hours.
   
   It is not possible to precisely quantify the effect of extreme weather on payroll
   employment estimates. In order for severe weather conditions to reduce employment
   estimates, employees have to be off work without pay for the entire pay period.
   Employees who receive pay for any part of the pay period, even 1 hour, are counted in
   the payroll employment figures. For more information on how often employees are paid,
   please visit www.bls.gov/ces/publications/length-pay-period.htm.

   In the household survey, the reference period is generally the calendar week that
   includes the 12th of the month. People who miss the entire week's work for weather-
   related events are counted as employed whether or not they are paid for the time
   off. The household survey collects data on the number of people who had a job but
   were not at work due to bad weather. It also provides a measure of the number of
   people who usually work full time but had reduced hours due to bad weather. 
   
   Current and historical data are available on the household survey's most requested
   statistics page, please visit data.bls.gov/toppicks?survey=ln.

Technical Note


   This news release presents statistics from two major surveys, the Current
Population Survey (CPS; household survey) and the Current Employment Statistics
survey (CES; establishment survey). The household survey provides information
on the labor force, employment, and unemployment that appears in the "A" tables,
marked HOUSEHOLD DATA. It is a sample survey of about 60,000 eligible households
conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

   The establishment survey provides information on employment, hours, and
earnings of employees on nonfarm payrolls; the data appear in the "B" tables,
marked ESTABLISHMENT DATA. BLS collects these data each month from the payroll
records of a sample of nonagricultural business establishments. Each month
the CES program surveys about 119,000 businesses and government agencies,
representing approximately 622,000 individual worksites, in order to provide
detailed industry data on employment, hours, and earnings of workers on nonfarm
payrolls. The active sample includes approximately 26 percent of all nonfarm
payroll jobs.

   For both surveys, the data for a given month relate to a particular week or
pay period. In the household survey, the reference period is generally the
calendar week that contains the 12th day of the month. In the establishment
survey, the reference period is the pay period including the 12th, which may or
may not correspond directly to the calendar week.

Coverage, definitions, and differences between surveys

   Household survey. The sample is selected to reflect the entire civilian 
noninstitutional population. Based on responses to a series of questions on 
work and job search activities, each person 16 years and over in a sample
household is classified as employed, unemployed, or not in the labor force.

   People are classified as employed if they did any work at all as paid employees
during the reference week; worked in their own business, profession, or on their
own farm; or worked without pay at least 15 hours in a family business or farm.
People are also counted as employed if they were temporarily absent from their jobs
because of illness, bad weather, vacation, labor-management disputes, or personal
reasons.

   People are classified as unemployed if they meet all of the following criteria:
they had no employment during the reference week; they were available for work at
that time; and they made specific active efforts to find employment sometime during
the 4-week period ending with the reference week. People laid off from a job and
expecting recall need not be looking for work to be counted as unemployed. The
unemployment data derived from the household survey in no way depend upon the
eligibility for or receipt of unemployment insurance benefits.

   The civilian labor force is the sum of the employed and unemployed.
Those people not classified as employed or unemployed are not in the labor 
force. The unemployment rate is the number unemployed as a percent of the 
labor force. The labor force participation rate is the labor force as a 
percent of the population, and the employment-population ratio is the 
employed as a percent of the population. Additional information about the 
household survey can be found at www.bls.gov/cps/documentation.htm.

   Establishment survey. The sample establishments are drawn from private
nonfarm businesses such as factories, offices, and stores, as well as
from federal, state, and local government entities. Employees on nonfarm
payrolls are those who worked or received pay for any part of the reference pay
period, including people on paid leave. People are counted in each job
they hold. Hours and earnings data are produced for the private sector for
all employees and for production and nonsupervisory employees. Production
and nonsupervisory employees are defined as production and related employees
in manufacturing and mining and logging, construction workers in construction,
and nonsupervisory employees in private service-providing industries.

   Industries are classified on the basis of an establishment's principal
activity in accordance with the 2022 version of the North American Industry
Classification System. Additional information about the establishment survey
can be found at www.bls.gov/ces/.

   Differences in employment estimates. The numerous conceptual and methodological
differences between the household and establishment surveys result in important
distinctions in the employment estimates derived from the surveys. Among these are:

   --The household survey includes agricultural workers, self-employed workers
     whose businesses are unincorporated, unpaid family workers, and private
     household workers among the employed. These groups are excluded from the
     establishment survey.

   --The household survey includes people on unpaid leave among the employed.
     The establishment survey does not.

   --The household survey is limited to workers 16 years of age and older.
     The establishment survey is not limited by age.

   --The household survey has no duplication of individuals, because
     individuals are counted only once, even if they hold more than one
     job. In the establishment survey, employees working at more than one
     job and thus appearing on more than one payroll are counted separately
     for each appearance.

Seasonal adjustment

   Over the course of a year, the size of the nation's labor force and the levels
of employment and unemployment undergo regularly occurring fluctuations. These 
events may result from seasonal changes in weather, major holidays, and the opening
and closing of schools. The effect of such seasonal variation can be very large.

   Because these seasonal events follow a more or less regular pattern each year,
their influence on the level of a series can be tempered by adjusting for regular
seasonal variation. These adjustments make nonseasonal developments, such as
declines in employment or increases in the participation of women in the labor
force, easier to spot. For example, in the household survey, the large number of
youth entering the labor force each June is likely to obscure any other changes
that have taken place relative to May, making it difficult to determine if the 
level of economic activity has risen or declined. Similarly, in the establishment
survey, payroll employment in education declines by about 20 percent at the end
of the spring term and later rises with the start of the fall term, obscuring the
underlying employment trends in the industry. Because seasonal employment changes
at the end and beginning of the school year can be estimated, the statistics can be
adjusted to make underlying employment patterns more discernible. The seasonally
adjusted figures provide a more useful tool with which to analyze changes in
month-to-month economic activity.

   Many seasonally adjusted series are independently adjusted in both the household
and establishment surveys. However, the adjusted series for many major estimates,
such as total payroll employment, employment in most major sectors, total employment,
and unemployment are computed by aggregating independently adjusted component series.
For example, total unemployment is derived by summing the adjusted series for four
major age-sex components; this differs from the unemployment estimate that would be
obtained by directly adjusting the total or by combining the duration, reasons, or 
more detailed age categories. Percentage distributions of unemployment by reason and
duration are derived from the sum of the independently seasonally adjusted component
series and will not necessarily match calculations made using the seasonally adjusted
total unemployment level. Additional information about seasonal adjustment in the 
household survey can be found at www.bls.gov/cps/documentation.htm#sa.

   For both the household and establishment surveys, a concurrent seasonal adjustment
methodology is used in which new seasonal factors are calculated each month using all
relevant data, up to and including the data for the current month. In the household
survey, new seasonal factors are used to adjust only the current month's data. In the
establishment survey, however, new seasonal factors are used each month to adjust the
three most recent monthly estimates. The prior 2 months are routinely revised to
incorporate additional sample reports and recalculated seasonal adjustment factors.
In both surveys, 5-year revisions to historical data are made once a year.

Reliability of the estimates

   Statistics based on the household and establishment surveys are subject to both
sampling and nonsampling error. When a sample, rather than the entire population,
is surveyed, there is a chance that the sample estimates may differ from the true
population values they represent. The component of this difference that occurs
because samples differ by chance is known as sampling error, and its variability
is measured by the standard error of the estimate. There is about a 90-percent
chance, or level of confidence, that an estimate based on a sample will differ by
no more than 1.6 standard errors from the true population value because of sampling
error. BLS analyses are generally conducted at the 90-percent level of confidence.

   For example, the confidence interval for the monthly change in total nonfarm
employment from the establishment survey is on the order of plus or minus 122,000.
Suppose the estimate of nonfarm employment increases by 50,000 from one month to
the next. The 90-percent confidence interval on the monthly change would range from
-72,000 to +172,000 (50,000 +/- 122,000). These figures do not mean that the sample
results are off by these magnitudes, but rather that there is about a 90-percent
chance that the true over-the-month change lies within this interval. Since this
range includes values of less than zero, we could not say with confidence that
nonfarm employment had, in fact, increased that month. If, however, the reported
nonfarm employment rise was 250,000, then all of the values within the 90-percent
confidence interval would be greater than zero. In this case, it is likely (at
least a 90-percent chance) that nonfarm employment had, in fact, risen that month.
At an unemployment rate of around 6.0 percent, the 90-percent confidence interval
for the monthly change in unemployment as measured by the household survey is
about +/- 425,000, and for the monthly change in the unemployment rate it is about
+/- 0.3 percentage point.

   In general, estimates involving many individuals or establishments have lower
standard errors (relative to the size of the estimate) than estimates which are based
on a small number of observations. The precision of estimates also is improved when
the data are cumulated over time, such as for quarterly and annual averages.

   The household and establishment surveys are also affected by nonsampling error,
which can occur for many reasons, including the failure to sample a segment of the
population, inability to obtain information for all respondents in the sample,
inability or unwillingness of respondents to provide correct information on a
timely basis, mistakes made by respondents, and errors made in the collection or
processing of the data.

   For example, in the establishment survey, estimates for the most recent 2 months
are based on incomplete returns; for this reason, these estimates are labeled
preliminary in the tables. It is only after two successive revisions to a monthly
estimate, when nearly all sample reports have been received, that the estimate is
considered final.

   Another major source of nonsampling error in the establishment survey is the
inability to capture, on a timely basis, employment generated by new firms. To
correct for this systematic underestimation of employment growth, an estimation
procedure with two components is used to account for business births. The first
component excludes employment losses from business deaths from sample-based
estimation in order to offset the missing employment gains from business births.
This is incorporated into the sample-based estimation procedure by simply not
reflecting sample units going out of business, but imputing to them the same
employment trend as the other firms in the sample. This procedure accounts for
most of the net birth/death employment.

   The second component is an ARIMA time series model designed to estimate the
residual net birth-death employment not accounted for by the imputation. The
historical time series used in the ARIMA model is derived from the unemployment
insurance universe micro-level database and reflects the actual
residual net of births and deaths over the past 5 years. In addition to this
time series of actual residual net of births and deaths series, the
ARIMA-based component of the birth-death model includes current sample
information to inform the forecasts. More information on business births
and deaths in the establishment survey is available at
www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cesbd.htm.

   The sample-based estimates from the establishment survey are adjusted once a
year (on a lagged basis) to universe counts of payroll employment obtained from
administrative records of the unemployment insurance program. The difference 
between the March sample-based employment estimates and the March universe counts
is known as a benchmark revision, and serves as a rough proxy for total survey
error. Benchmarks also incorporate changes in the classification of industries
when necessary. The absolute average benchmark revision for total nonfarm
employment over the prior 10 years is 0.2 percent. Over this time, revisions 
ranged from -0.4 percent to 0.3 percent.

Other information

   If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability, please dial 7-1-1
to access telecommunications relay services.