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STAFFING REMAINS STEADY IN MARCH

Employment in temporary help services “was little changed in March, after increasing in February,” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner Kathleen P. Utgoff said Friday with the release of the agency’s monthly employment data.

The year-over-year growth rate for staffing industry employment remained strong in March--up 8.4%. That growth rate and total staffing industry employment for last month were the highest for the month of March since 2000. While BLS significantly revised its temporary help employment numbers downward for recent months, the industry has still averaged a monthly year-over-year growth rate of about 8.7% in the past six months.

“Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 110,000 in March,” Utgoff said, about half of the increase many economists were expecting for the month, and the smallest gain since July of last year.

“In most other industries,” however Utgoff said, “employment was relatively flat over the month.”

The unemployment rate declined to 5.2% in March. Utgoff reported that since March 2004, “The unemployment rate has trended down from 5.7%, reflecting declines in the jobless rates for adult men and adult women.”

Average hourly earnings increased by four cents in March to $15.95, up 2.6% from the same month in 2004.

Allyson Schuster