REUTERS/Jonathan Alcorn
The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the March jobs report at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Economists forecast that employers added 185,000 nonfarm payrolls last month, according to Bloomberg. They predict the unemployment rate dipped to 4% from 4.1%, a first since 2000.
The estimated number of payrolls would be nearly half of the 313,000 reported for February, partly because employers in construction and retail may not have repeated their hiring spree.
"The payroll week was snowier and colder than usual, so we have to look for an additional adverse weather effect," said Pantheon Macroeconomics' Ian Shepherdson in a preview.
Still, job growth this quarter is already off to a stronger start compared to last year, showing that many working-age people on the sidelines are getting jobs.
The pace of wage growth will be all-important in Friday's report, as some employers continue to say they're not able to find skilled workers. Economists estimate that average hourly earnings increased by 0.3% month-on-month and 2.7% year-on-year.
In a preview, Morgan Stanley economists pointed out that payday, the 15th of the month, fell within the BLS' survey week in March. In the past, such timing has injected some extra wage growth into the data, although it tends to be reversed when the BLS revises its numbers the following month.