Temporary help jobs rose by 10,500 in March from February, according to seasonally adjusted numbers released today by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The year-over-year growth rate rose to 3.82% in March from 3.66% in February, marking the largest year-over-year growth rate since July 2015.

Today’s revised data also increased the previously reported gains in February of 3,100 US temp jobs to a gain of 8,900.

The temp penetration rate — temp jobs as a percent of total employment — rose to 2.054% in March from 2.049% in February.

Total nonfarm jobs rose by 98,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis, down significantly from the gain of 219,000 in January.

 “While overall jobs growth in March softened, this can be attributed at least in part to the late-winter storms impacting the Northeast and Midwest,” said Andrew Braswell, senior research analyst at Staffing Industry Analysts. “Temporary help employment gains are accelerating on a year-over-year basis, as the solid increase in March was accompanied by upward revisions to the prior two months.”

Bloomberg reports the total nonfarm jobs increase fell far short of the median forecast in its survey of economists, which called for an increase of 180,000. While the payroll figures are the weakest since last May and represent a pullback from the first two months of the year, it may reflect that things are getting back to normal.

The unemployment rate fell to 4.5% in March from 4.7% in February, the lowest level since May 2007. However, the college-level unemployment rate — which can serve as a proxy for professional employment — edged up to 2.5% in March from 2.4% in February.

“March’s surprisingly weak job growth is likely to cool the rising optimism in the US economy,” The Conference Board stated. “98,000 new jobs is clearly disappointing, but should not be viewed as a sudden deterioration in the trend of employment growth. Rather, it is a fluctuation around a monthly trend of 150,000 – 200,000 added jobs, which is more than enough to continue to tighten the labor market.”

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