April 10, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Payroll employment in March

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 416,000 in March to 130.7 million, seasonally adjusted. This increase included the addition of 117,000 temporary census workers.

[Chart data—TXT]

Also, it is likely that some of the March payroll employment gain resulted from a calendar anomaly. This year, there were 5 weeks instead of the usual 4 between the February and March survey reference periods. The last time this occurred was in 1972.

Because this occurrence is so rare, the payroll employment estimates for March cannot be adjusted for the differences in the number of weeks between the survey reference periods, as is done for other months. Thus, the estimates of employment change this month reflect an additional week's growth. This effect is most pronounced in seasonal industries that tend to add jobs at this time of year.

These data are a product of the BLS Current Employment Statistics Program. Find out more in "The Employment Situation: March 2000," news release USDL 00-95.