The Conference Board’s US Employment Trends Index rose in March to a reading of 131.43 from February’s downwardly revised reading of 131.09. The March reading, which followed a sharp increase in February, is up 4.3% from the same month a year ago.

“The Employment Trends Index continued to expand in March, suggesting that solid job growth will continue through the spring,” said Gad Levanon, chief economist, North America, at The Conference Board. “The surprisingly weak job growth in March is mostly noise in an otherwise healthy and tight labor market.”

Positive contributions from six of the eight components fueled March’s increase. Real manufacturing and trade sales was the largest positive contributor, followed by the ratio of involuntarily part-time to all part-time workers and industrial production, respectively.

The US Department of Labor on Friday reported the US added 98,000 jobs in March and gained 10,500 temp jobs.