The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its "Employment Situation Summary" on April 3, reporting that nonfarm payroll employment was up 126,000 jobs in March. Unemployment remained steady at 5.5 percent.
Despite the static unemployment rate reported by the BLS, Business Insider showed that the rate is actually dropping. March's number of 8.575 million unemployed Americans compared with February's 8.705 million shows a drop in unemployment of 0.08 percent, which is "definitely more of a drop than not." The BLS report also stated that employment showed positive trends in professional and business services, health care and retail trade.
This continues the positive outlook of declining unemployment rates, which according to the the National Association for Business Economics' March report will sit at 5.4 percent at the end of 2015. The NABE report also stated that the median forecast for nonfarm payroll growth is 251,000 for 2015, and that this year will see lower inflation rates and higher consumer spending.
"Healthier consumer spending, housing investment and government spending growth are expected to make outsized contributions to the projected acceleration in overall economic activity. Accordingly, recent labor market strength is expected to continue," said John Silvia, NABE president.
