Scott Horsley

U.S.

employers added 178,000 jobs in March, offsetting big job losses in February.

Health care saw the biggest gains, adding 76,000 jobs.

About half of that reflects people who returned to work after a February strike.

Construction companies, restaurants, and factories also added jobs in March, while the federal government continued to lose workers.

Revised figures for the two previous months were mixed.

Hiring was stronger than first reported in January, but February's job losses were bigger as well.

The unemployment rate inched down in March to 4.3 percent.

That was largely because almost 400,000 people dropped out of the workforce.

Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

The Labor Department says U.S.

employers added 178,000 jobs last month.

That's a lot more than forecasters had expected, especially given the economic jitters caused by the war with Iran.

Construction companies, factories, and restaurants all added jobs in March.

Healthcare once again saw the strongest hiring in the economy, though some of that was the result of people going back to work after a February strike.

The monthly jobs tally was conducted in the first half of March, so may not fully reflect the fallout from the war with Iran.

Despite sharply higher prices for crude oil and gasoline, the report shows no increase in employment among oil and gas drilling companies.

Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

It was exactly a year ago today that President Trump ordered double-digit tariffs on just about everything the U.S.

imports.