{"id":3280,"date":"2026-04-03T21:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T01:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3280"},"modified":"2026-04-03T21:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T01:00:10","slug":"march-job-gains-mask-a-volatile-labor-market-as-iran-war-chaos-mounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3280","title":{"rendered":"March Job Gains Mask a Volatile Labor Market as Iran War Chaos Mounts"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Today\u2019s jobs report shows the labor market added 178,000 jobs in March, and February\u2019s losses significantly revised down, revealing a decrease of 133,000 jobs. The unemployment rate remained mostly unchanged at 4.3%, with unemployment at its weakest pace since 2020. As hiring stalls, the share of workers who say it\u2019s harder to find jobs has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conference-board.org\/topics\/consumer-confidence\/index.cfm\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">increased<\/a> sharply, and the number of workers who have given up on the labor market entirely increased by 40% in the last month alone. Paychecks are stalling as prices <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/03\/25\/fertilizer-price-iran-war-food-security-inflation-urea-potash-nitrogen-farmers.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">rise <\/a>from Trump\u2019s war with Iran and continued <a href=\"https:\/\/kpmg.com\/kpmg-us\/content\/dam\/kpmg\/corporate-communications\/pdf\/2026\/Tariff%203.0%20survey_Media%20Deck_3.25.2026.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">uncertainty<\/a> over his tariffs, squeezing Americans from all sides.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Groundwork\u2019s Chief Economist <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/groundworkcollaborative.org\/person\/breyon-williams-ph-d\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Breyon Williams<\/strong><\/a><strong> released the following statement:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cBeyond today\u2019s headline bounce, the labor market continues to deteriorate under Trump\u2019s economic mismanagement: hiring has ground to a halt, paychecks are shrinking, and workers are giving up on finding a job altogether. A single month of modest gains can\u2019t reverse the damage that the president has inflicted on working families.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>BACKGROUND<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The March jobs report confirms a volatile labor market, as workers are at the whim of the president\u2019s chaos. <\/strong>Job growth remains inconsistent, with modest gains following sharp losses in February. This extends a stop-and-start pattern with gains one month followed by losses the next that has persisted since last June.\n<ul>\n<li>In the first quarter of this year, just 68,000 jobs have been added per month on average. This represents one of the weakest first quarters of job growth outside of a recession since 2003.<\/li>\n<li>The headline number overstates the health of the labor market as half of job gains were in the health care sector and driven by physicians returning from strike activity, a one-time bounce.<\/li>\n<li>The share of consumers who say jobs are currently hard to get <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conference-board.org\/topics\/consumer-confidence\/index.cfm\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">rose<\/a> to 21.5% in March, the highest in more than five years, according to The Conference Board. The share expecting fewer jobs in the next six months also climbed, and the number of consumers expecting a recession in the next 12 months is up.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hiring has slowed to its weakest pace since 2020 as job openings vanish, leaving jobless workers out to dry.<\/strong> The number of marginally attached workers increased by 20% and discouraged workers by 40% in a single month.\n<ul>\n<li>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bls.gov\/news.release\/jolts.nr0.htm\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">latest<\/a> Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data show the hiring rate fell to 3.1% in February. Job openings dropped to 6.9 million from 7.2 million the month before.<\/li>\n<li>As the job market slumps, it\u2019s taking workers longer to find a job: the average duration of unemployment spells is nearly four months and has increased by nearly 19% over the past year.<\/li>\n<li>For workers just entering the labor market, finding work is even more challenging: Entry-level job postings have <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2026\/03\/21\/entry-level-jobs-gen-z-not-their-fault\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">dried up<\/a>, leaving a generation of young workers locked out of careers before they can start.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Paychecks are stalling as inflation heats up.<\/strong> Average weekly earnings ticked slightly down in March as hourly earnings were roughly flat but hours declined. Shrinking paychecks will make the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/us\/wall-st-week-ahead-inflation-focus-markets-jostled-by-middle-east-war-signals-2026-04-03\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">price hikes<\/a> caused by Trump\u2019s war on Iran even more painful for families who are already struggling to keep up.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s jobs report shows the labor market added 178,000 jobs in March, and February\u2019s losses significantly revised down, revealing a decrease of 133,000 jobs. The unemployment rate remained mostly unchanged at 4.3%, with unemployment at its weakest pace since 2020. As hiring stalls, the share of workers who say it\u2019s harder to find jobs has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[742],"class_list":["post-3280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ciencia-y-tecnologia","tag-vr-news-net"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>March Job Gains Mask a Volatile Labor Market as Iran War Chaos Mounts - VR-NEWS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3280\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"March Job Gains Mask a Volatile Labor Market as Iran War Chaos Mounts - VR-NEWS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today\u2019s jobs report shows the labor market added 178,000 jobs in March, and February\u2019s losses significantly revised down, revealing a decrease of 133,000 jobs. The unemployment rate remained mostly unchanged at 4.3%, with unemployment at its weakest pace since 2020. As hiring stalls, the share of workers who say it\u2019s harder to find jobs has [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3280\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"VR-NEWS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-04T01:00:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3280#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3280\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/#\/schema\/person\/98de0aa478d1264be46280c37718784f\"},\"headline\":\"March Job Gains Mask a Volatile Labor Market as Iran War Chaos Mounts\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-04T01:00:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3280\"},\"wordCount\":526,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"vr-news.net\"],\"articleSection\":[\"ciencia y Tecnolog\u00eda\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3280\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3280\",\"name\":\"March Job Gains Mask a Volatile Labor Market as Iran War Chaos Mounts - VR-NEWS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-04T01:00:10+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3280#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3280\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3280#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"\u9996\u9875\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"March Job Gains Mask a Volatile Labor Market as Iran War Chaos Mounts\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/\",\"name\":\"VR-NEWS\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/#organization\",\"name\":\"VR-NEWS\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/assets_task_01jxkefjetf90af0n81erwh2t3_1749778240_img_1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/assets_task_01jxkefjetf90af0n81erwh2t3_1749778240_img_1.jpg\",\"width\":1021,\"height\":490,\"caption\":\"VR-NEWS\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/#\/schema\/person\/98de0aa478d1264be46280c37718784f\",\"name\":\"\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24728fdbc7a45c7e15a9101efdaa3090dd1a88b0377d11e53edcf178c7abe385?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24728fdbc7a45c7e15a9101efdaa3090dd1a88b0377d11e53edcf178c7abe385?s=96&d=mm&r=g\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?author=9\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"March Job Gains Mask a Volatile Labor Market as Iran War Chaos Mounts - VR-NEWS","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3280","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"March Job Gains Mask a Volatile Labor Market as Iran War Chaos Mounts - VR-NEWS","og_description":"Today\u2019s jobs report shows the labor market added 178,000 jobs in March, and February\u2019s losses significantly revised down, revealing a decrease of 133,000 jobs. 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