Below, EPI economists provide their initial insights into this morning’s jobs report, which showed 431,000 new jobs were added in March.

From Elise Gould, Senior Economist at EPI (@eliselgould):

Read the full Twitter thread here.

Overall employment is now just 1% below pre-pandemic levels. Private sector payrolls posted strong gains of 426,000 jobs in March, with notable gains in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and retail trade. Public sector employment remains slow to recover.

– Elise Gould (@eliselgould) April 1, 2022

Turning to the household survey, the unemployment rate fell to 3.6% as more workers (re)entered the labor force and found jobs. The employment-to-population ratio for workers aged 25-54 rose significantly, reaching 80.0% in March 2020, 0.5 percentage points below pre-pandemic levels. pic.twitter.com/ctJHab2lbJ

– Elise Gould (@eliselgould) April 1, 2022

Black women and Latino workers (notice the fluctuating series) saw welcome gains as unemployment fell and employment rose, the latest data shows. They are still below their pre-recession levels, but I am optimistic that they will continue to see gains as the recovery continues. pic.twitter.com/VjspcoJi9c

– Elise Gould (@eliselgould) April 1, 2022

From EPI President Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz):

Read the full Twitter thread here.

We added 431,000 jobs in March for a total of 8.4 million jobs added since the end of 2020. This is incredibly fast and consistent growth – adding more than 500,000 jobs per month on average over a 15-month period. 1/

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) April 1, 2022

We are recovering almost eight years faster than we recovered from the Great Recession. (I’ll rescale that golden age EPOP chart to drive this.) 4/ pic.twitter.com/f33yZDP1g7

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) April 1, 2022

In stark contrast to the Great Depression and its aftermath, Congress this time took the measures needed to stimulate a strong recovery (ie CARES and ARPA). If Congress hadn’t enacted the Covid relief and recovery measures it did, we would have lost millions of jobs today. 6/

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) April 1, 2022

Without the strong job recovery created by CARES and ARPA, this almost inevitable burst of inflation will wreak more havoc on working families. 11/

— Heidi Shierholz (@hshierholz) April 1, 2022