Payrolls grow by just 110,000, while jobless rate dips

Friday, April 1, 2005 | 9:35 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Payroll growth across the country was sluggish in March as employers added just 110,000 jobs, the fewest since July. Nevertheless, the labor market accommodated enough people to drop the unemployment rate to 5.2 percent.

The new figures, released by the Labor Department today, offered another mixed picture of America's hiring climate. The job market has been the sector of the economy that has been among the slowest to recover from the last recession.

"It wasn't a banner month for the average American worker. We had job growth but not enough to absorb the still large number of unemployed and underemployed people," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com. "The job market is not in full swing."

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