March Hiring Accelerated to 916,000, yet Many Jobs Remain Lost

A roadside banner beckons potential employees outside Channel Control Merchants LLC, an extreme value retailer and exporter of brand sensitive secondary market inventories, in Hattiesburg, Miss., on March 27, 2021. Rogelio V. Solis/AP Photo

WASHINGTON—America’s employers unleashed a burst of hiring in March, adding 916,000 jobs in a sign that a sustained recovery from the pandemic recession is taking hold as businesses increasingly reopen.

The March increase—the most since August—was nearly double February’s gain of 468,000, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate declined from 6.2 percent to 6 percent.