US economy adds 228,000 jobs in March, beating expectations; unemployment rate rises to 4.2%

The US added 228,000 jobs in March, exceeding expectations as the economy recovered from the Trump administration’s deep cuts to federal workers.

This was an increase from the 117,000 jobs added in February.

However, at the same time, unemployment slightly rose to 4.2 per cent.

Economists had predicted 140,000 jobs would be added in March 2025, a slight decrease from February and below the average of 167,000 jobs per month over the past year.

Payroll firm ADP reported 155,000 jobs were added in the private sector for March 2025.

Reacting to it, President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that his policies are “already working”.

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“GREAT JOB NUMBERS, FAR BETTER THAN EXPECTED. IT’S ALREADY WORKING. HANG TOUGH, WE CAN’T LOSE!!!”

The job data comes days after Trump announced sweeping tariffs on Wednesday, triggering a global trade war. Experts estimate that the US labour market is expected to enter an era of uncertainty.

Meanwhile, a separate report released by the jobs and career consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, revealed Thursday (April 3) that Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency slashed the federal workforce by 216,000.

‘March data doesn’t reflect impact of tariffs’

Experts see little impact of Trump’s trade measures on March labour data.

Matthew Weller, global head of research at FOREX.com, wrote to clients Thursday, “Focusing in purely on the labor market, even last month’s tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China are likely to have little impact on the March [jobs] reading yet, though there is some risk that we could start to see the leading edge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) job cuts filtering through.”

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For most analysts, the March data is old news—especially now that Trump has officially kicked off his plan to reshape the US economy.

“With recession fears mounting, a weaker-than-expected [jobs data point] could be a nail in the coffin for the US economy,” Barclays analysts said in a note Thursday.

“Unfortunately, a more encouraging reading could easily be dismissed as being ‘outdated’ given the prospect of significant tariffs hitting the US job market. In this context, it feels like this is a lose-lose situation for markets.”

(With inputs from agencies)