Pandemic recovery picks up speed as employers add 916,00 jobs

The US economy’s recovery from the pandemic strengthened in March as employers added 916,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday.

The job gain was up from the revised 468,000 increase in jobs reported for February. The unemployment rate improved to 6%, compared with the 6.2% in February. But while some sectors are back to their pre-pandemic employment levels, the overall US economy still has more than 8 million fewer jobs than it did before Covid-19 related job losses started a year ago.