unemployment rate

The U.S. economy is slowing down, but it keeps creating jobs at a healthy pace. Employers added 164,000 jobs last month — as analysts had projected — and the unemployment rate held steady at 3.7%.

The number of jobs added was well below the three-month average. Manufacturing, a key sector that is affected by trade tensions, showed weak growth. But the unemployment rate held steady, at 3.6%.

The economy added far fewer jobs than expected in February, a slowdown from much stronger gains in December and January. But the jobless rate fell to 3.8 percent, and earnings growth picked up.

Job growth picked up for the 100th consecutive month even as hundreds of thousands of federal workers were furloughed during the partial government shutdown. Wage growth held steady.

Wage growth — and more specifically, the lack of vigorous pay raises — continued to be an issue, with average hourly earnings nudging slightly upward to 2.9 percent.

Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Bernie Sanders and others back "job guarantee" programs to assure jobs for all who want them. It's another sign of top Democrats embracing further left positions.

The last time the U.S. jobless percentage sat below 4 percent was in December of 2000. April brought net job gains, but fell short of economists' predictions.

Trump's numbers are right, but it's hard to make the case that he should get credit for them.

This year's "State of Black America" report took the unusual step of warning that the organization now has a new priority: protecting areas of progress from retrenchment during the next few years.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate stayed about where it has been, dropping just a tenth of a percentage point to 4.7 percent. All in all, the report builds on strong jobs gains in January.

Throughout the campaign, Donald Trump questioned the government's unemployment figures. Will that continue, now that he is the president?