The unemployment rate fell to the lowest in five months in March as employers added jobs at a healthy pace, the government said Friday in a report that suggested the housing slowdown has had little effect on the job market.The U.S. unemployment rate was a seasonally adjusted 4.4% in March, down from 4.5% in February and matching the more than five-year-low hit in October, the Labor Department said. Employers added 180,000 jobs last month, up from 113,000 in February and the largest gain since December.
"That's a pretty strong report," says Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh. "It was (strong) pretty much across the board in every nook and cranny."
The news came after recent data have suggested the economy is slowing. A report out this week showed growth in the service sector, the biggest part of the U.S. economy, was the slowest in nearly four years while other data have pointed to a deterioration in business investment and manufacturing activity. The housing market has continued to weaken.
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