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Kansas City labor market conditions chart suggests increased activity, momentum through March

An updated Labor Market Conditions Indicators chart from the Kansas City Fed proposes that the level of activity increased modestly in March while momentum grew sharply. March drew in 43,425 total filings, over 12,000 from February's total of 31,221 filings.

The Kansas City Fed Labor Market Conditions Indicators (LMCI) suggest the level of activity increased modestly in March while momentum accelerated sharply.

Image courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

The level of activity indicator increased by 0.06 in March from −0.25 to −0.19. Meanwhile, the momentum indicator increased by 0.88 from 0.49 to 1.37.

This is the fourth largest one-month increase in the history of the momentum series. The three largest increases occurred in May, June, and July of 2020.

These readings likely do not fully describe the state of the labor market at the end of March, the Kansas City Fed noted, as many of the input data series reflect conditions early in the month.

In particular, the series do not include the effects of the continued acceleration in vaccine administration that occurred later in the month. Labor market developments in the latter half of March, including the labor market response to recent COVID-19 developments, will likely show up in the April 2021 LMCI readings.