The number of US temp jobs rose by 4,000 in March after month-over-month declines since December, but the year-over-year growth rate of 1.94% in March continued a slowing trend, according to seasonally adjusted data released today by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Today’s revised data also increased February’s previously reported loss of 9,800 US temp jobs to a loss of 12,400.

The temp penetration rate — temp jobs as a percent of total employment — edged down to 2.011% in March from 2.012% in February.

For total nonfarm employment, the US added 215,000 jobs in March. Employment gains occurred in retail trade, construction, and health care. Job losses occurred in manufacturing and mining.

The increase exceeded the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists, which called for a gain of 205,000 jobs.

The US unemployment rate edged up to 5.0% in March from 4.9% in February. The college-level unemployment rate was 2.6%, up slightly from 2.5% in February. The college-level unemployment rate can serve as a proxy for professional employment.

Despite weak economic growth in the last two quarters, employers kept hiring at a solid pace in the first quarter, which is likely to be one of very low, perhaps even negative, labor productivity growth, according to Gad Levanon, chief economist, North America, at The Conference Board. Moving forward, The Conference Board expects the weak GDP growth to translate into slower employment growth.

“The unemployment rate went up to 5.0%, but for good reasons, as more people are starting to look for jobs again,” Levanon said. “The labor force participation rate increased by a whopping 0.6 percentage points since September. As the labor markets get tighter, the downward trend in the unemployment rate is naturally becoming more moderate. However, even moderate job growth is likely to be enough to continue to tighten the labor market.”

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