It's the Brian Lera Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. Last month, we did a segment on the

historically bad job market for new college graduates this spring and mentioned the alarming

decline in the number of total jobs in the United States in the February jobs report from the

Labor Department. We said we would do another segment today when the March numbers came out. Well,

they did at 8.30 this morning, as usual, on the first Friday of the month for the month before.

Even on Good Friday, they came out for the month before. And the news was pretty good. The

going predictions had been for about 60,000 new jobs. The actual number was more like

170, 170, to emphasize that, or 180,000 new jobs compared to the 60,000

predicted.

Not everything was good.

I'm seeing that the national picture for February, we learned this morning, was actually

worse than first reported.

That's true of the job numbers for New York City in 2025 as a whole.

So we'll get into the national and the local picture with us to get further into the weeds.

Then that top number, what sectors, what parts of the country, do things look any better for

college seniors, the effective tariffs and the Iran war, what parts of the country, do things look any better for college seniors,

the effect of tariffs and the Iran war, and questions I'm not even thinking to ask because

he knows this field a lot better than I do, is Greg David, contributor to the news organization

the city and director of the Business and Economics Reporting Program at the Craig Newmark

Graduate School of Journalism

at CUNY. Hi, Greg, thanks for coming on with us for some first blush takes on the jobs report.

Welcome back to WNYC. Well, thank you, Brian. I'm really immersed in this because my fall class at the

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