The government announced the addition of 303,000 jobs last month. This is the strongest headline number since May 2023 and easily exceeds economists' expectations of 200,000 and 270,000 additions in February (revised from the previously reported 275,000).

The unemployment rate in March fell to 3.8% versus expectations of 3.9% and 3.9% in February.

The price of Bitcoin {{BTC}} fell about 0.5% in the minutes following the Friday morning report to $66,000. In traditional markets, US stock index futures have given up much of their previous gains, but are still modestly higher. The 10-year US Treasury bond yield rose 6.5 basis points to 4.38%, and the dollar index added 0.5%.

By 2024, markets had set up to five or six interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve, starting in March. But economic data has not cooperated. Inflation rose somewhat in the first quarter of the year and job growth remained strong.

Clearly, March came and went without any rate cuts, and traders ahead of today's numbers had moved expectations of the first rate cut to June or July, according to the CME FedWatch tool. A total of only three interest rate cuts are expected for the whole year, and even that may be too much.