AFP, Washington

The US labour market has almost recovered from the mass joblessness caused by the pandemic, adding hundreds of thousands of positions last month and sending the unemployment rate nearly to where it was before Covid-19 broke out nationwide.

The Labor Department reported Friday that the unemployment rate fell more than analysts had predicted in March to 3.6 per cent, a hair above its February 2020 level of 3.5 per cent, while the economy added 431,000 jobs in the month.

Though the hiring total was slightly below analysts’ forecasts, it was nonetheless a strong figure that underscored how far the economy has come since the pandemic started two years ago.

The economy has “gone from being on the mend to being on the move,” President Joe Biden said Friday at the White House, as his administration grapples with low approval ratings driven in part by inflation, which has hit record levels during his presidency.

The economy has also added millions of jobs since Biden took office last year, but analysts said they doubted that the robust pace of hiring could be maintained.

“Today’s job report is great news as it means the economy has almost fully recovered from the blow caused by the pandemic,” Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics wrote on Twitter.

“But it is somewhat disquieting in that the job market must cool off quickly, or inflation, our number one economic problem, will soon be a much bigger one.”

The data was released as the Federal Reserve undergoes a delicate process of fighting price increases by raising interest rates from the zero level they held them at when the pandemic was at its worst, while simultaneously trying not to harm the recovery.