Friday’s employment figures underscore the urgency Federal Reserve officials feel to quickly withdraw economic stimulus by raising interest rates in potentially larger intervals in the coming months.
Employers added 431,000 jobs in March, the Labor Department reported on Friday, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.6% from 3.8% in February. Hiring during the first two months of the year was stronger than initially reported, leaving average monthly hiring at 562,000 jobs so far this year, in line with last year’s booming pace of job gains.
