"This is a historic recovery - Americans are back to work," tweeted US President Joe Biden, who is scheduled to speak on the matter at 10:45 a.m. (2:45 p.m. GMT) from Home. White.

The jobless rate fell to 3.6%, down 0.2 points from February, according to Labor Department data released Friday.

In February 2020, it stood at 3.5%, its lowest level in 50 years, just before the Covid-19 put economic activity on hold.

Many workers, who had left the job market since the start of the pandemic, are returning to it: pre-retirees, mothers who have put their professional life on hold in the face of childcare difficulties, worried employees for their health...

The participation rate thus continues to progress slowly to reach 62.4% (+0.1 point compared to February).

While it is still well below the 63.4% it proudly displayed before the crisis, it is however its highest level since March 2020.

"It's a sign that people are getting back into the workforce," White House economic adviser Brian Deese told CNBC.

President Joe Biden in Washington, March 31, 2022 Nicholas Kamm AFP

"It's of course good for the long-term issue of price pressures in the economy. We need more people to enter the labor market," he added.

Wage increase of 5.6%

The labor shortage, in fact, has led employers to outbid themselves to attract candidates, pushing up wages, and improving the situation of millions of workers, but fueling inflation.

The average hourly wage in the private sector was thus 31.73 dollars in March, 5.6% more than a year ago, according to the Department of Labor.

"The pace of wage growth is significantly faster than the pre-pandemic rate of around 3.1%", which should "continue to attract individuals to the labor market", commented Kathy Bostjancic, Chief Economist for Oxford Economics.

“Such an increase in labor supply will be essential to alleviate some of the current inflationary pressures,” she added.

"Some U.S. employers are reporting that hiring is getting easier," Andrew Challenger, vice president of consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a study released Thursday.

He had thus referred to "the incentives many companies have put in place to attract and retain talent", while "the impacts of inflation and war-related concerns push workers who depended on savings or investments to looking for a job".

Big resignation

Job creations, on the other hand, were a little disappointing in March, with 431,000 jobs created.

This is well below February's 750,000, but it was a strong rebound then, as the Omicron threat receded.

A job offer displayed on a window in New York, March 31, 2022 SPENCER PLATT GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

Thus, in March, “notable job gains continued in the leisure and hospitality industry, professional and business services, retail trade and manufacturing,” the ministry detailed in its press release.

There is still a shortfall of 1.6 million jobs compared to February 2020.

The labor shortage has led to the "Great Resignation" of American employees, most often with a job offer in their pocket elsewhere, offering better conditions.

According to the most recent data available published on Tuesday, 4.4 million people resigned in February, a level almost equivalent to January. The all-time high was reached in November 2021, with 4.5 million resignations.

The number of unemployment benefit recipients even fell in mid-March to its lowest level since 1969. The level of employment in the United States is currently "unhealthy", the central bank president had recently estimated. US (Fed).

© 2022 AFP