AP – America’s employers extended a streak of robust hiring in March, adding 431,000 jobs in a sign of the economy’s resilience in the face of a still-destructive pandemic, Russia’s war against Ukraine and the highest inflation in 40 years.

The government’s report on Friday showed that last month’s job growth helped shrink the unemployment rate to 3.6 per cent. That’s the lowest rate since the pandemic erupted two years ago and just above the half-century low of 3.5 per cent that was reached two years ago.

Despite the inflation surge, persistent supply bottlenecks, damage from COVID-19 and now a war in Europe, employers have added at least 400,000 jobs for 11 straight months. In its report, the government also sharply revised up its estimate of hiring in January and February by a combined 95,000 jobs.

The job growth in March, though solid, was the lowest since September and slightly below what economists had expected. Still, chief economist at Dreyfus and Mellon Vincent Reinhart said the numbers show that “the United States (US) economy continues to have underlying momentum and that firms are taking workers when they can”.

The March report sketched a bright picture of the job market, with steady hiring and rising wages. Average hourly pay has risen a strong 5.6 per cent over the past 12 months, welcome news for employees across the economy. For leisure and hospitality workers, including people who work in hotels, restaurants and bars, average pay has jumped 11.8 per cent from a year earlier – “a clear sign that employers are desperate for staff”, said president of One Fair Wage Saru Jayaraman, which advocates for better pay and conditions for service employees. For most workers, though, pay raises aren’t keeping up with the spike in inflation that has put the Federal Reserve on track to raise rates multiple times, perhaps aggressively, in the coming months.

Those rate hikes will result in costlier loans for many consumers and businesses. In the meantime, worker pay raises, a response in many cases to labour shortages, are themselves feeding the economy’s inflation pressures.

The steady job growth has failed to buoy President Joe Biden’s flagging popularity, with the gains overshadowed in the public’s mind by chronically high inflation. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine driving oil and gasoline prices higher, Biden has announced plans to release a million barrels of oil daily from the US strategic reserve for the next six months.

Since the pandemic struck in 2020, many Americans have remained on the sidelines of the job market, a trend that has contributed to the worker shortage in many industries. But in an encouraging sign for the economy, 418,000 people began looking for a job in March, and many found one. Over the past year, 3.8 million people have rejoined the labour force, meaning they now either have a job or are looking for one.

BAGHDAD (AFP) – Iraq exported USD11.07 billion of oil last month, the highest level for half a century, as crude prices soared amid shortfall fears following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Oil Ministry said.

The second largest producer in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Iraq exported “100,563,999 barrels for revenues of USD11.07 billion, the highest revenue since 1972”, the ministry said.

The figures published late Friday are preliminary data but final data “generally does not vary” much, a ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In February, oil revenues reached an eight-year high of USD8.5 billion, with daily exports of 3.3 million barrels of oil.

Oil exports account for more than 90 per cent of Iraq’s income.

Crude prices spiked over fears of a major supply shortfall after Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24. Russia is the world’s second biggest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia.

On Thursday, the OPEC group of oil producing countries and its Russia-led allies agreed on another modest oil output increase, ignoring Western pressure to significantly boost production as the Ukraine conflict has rocked prices.

The 13 members of the Saudi-led OPEC and 10 countries spearheaded by Russia – a group known as OPEC+ – backed an increase of 432,000 barrels per day in May, marginally higher than in previous months.

The United States has urged OPEC+ to boost production as high energy prices have contributed to soaring inflation across the world, which has threatened to severely derail the recovery from the Covid pandemic.

While OPEC refused to budge, Washington said it would tap its strategic stockpile by a record amount in a bid to cool soaring prices.

The international benchmark contract, Brent North Sea crude, flirted with a record high in early March as it soared to almost USD140 per barrel, but has retreated since then. On Friday, oil was around USD100 a barrel.

Oil revenues are critical for Iraq’s government, with the country mired in a financial crisis and needing funds to rebuild infrastructure after decades of devastating war.

Iraq, with a population of some 41 million people, is also grappling with a major energy crisis and suffers regular power cuts.

Despite its immense oil and gas reserves, Iraq remains dependent on imports to meet its energy needs.

Neighbouring Iran currently provides a third of Iraq’s gas and electricity needs, but supplies are regularly cut or reduced, aggravating daily load shedding.