When the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases data this morning on the March unemployment rate and the number of jobs added to payrolls last month, economists expect to hear:
-- That there were about 200,000 more jobs than in February.
-- That the jobless rate edged down to 6.6 percent from February's 6.7 percent.
NPR's John Ydstie previewed the report on Morning Edition. As he said, 200,000 more jobs "would be much better than the 130,000 average increase over the past three months, when most analysts agree the economy was held back by bad weather."
A month ago, when BLS said employers had added 175,000 jobs to their payrolls, the news was slightly better than economists had expected. That figure could be revised in today's report.
The data are due at 8:30 a.m. ET. We'll be updating with the news, highlights, reactions and analysis.
Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/
