Industries hit hard by the pandemic continued their rebound.

The roles report launched Friday — which confirmed U.S. employers added 431,000 jobs in March on a seasonally adjusted foundation — acquired a spherical of applause from many economists and labor market analysts, cooling off fears of a significant slowdown in development. And it spurred hope within the service sector that good occasions could also be again once more, and stick round extra sustainably.

After experiencing almost two years of stop-and-go reopenings — optimistic bursts of in-person exercise because the virus ebbed, adopted by fearful drawbacks because it rose once more — consultants say that the broadest swath of customers but could also be returning to the kind of in-person exercise that outlined their Earlier than Instances lives: The sectors that cowl journey, stay leisure, indoor eating, museums and historic websites, bars and different consuming locations all noticed main boosts.

Whereas the headline numbers have been largely unsurprising, there’s loads of excellent news for job seekers “if you happen to dig just a little bit deeper and take a look at a sector degree,” mentioned Michelle Meyer, U.S. chief economist for the Mastercard Economics Institute. “1 / 4 of the job creation was in leisure and hospitality.” The sector added 112,000 jobs in March.

“There’s nonetheless extra work to be finished,” she mentioned. Employment in leisure and hospitality continues to be down 1.5 million from prepandemic ranges. However the sturdy development “speaks to the truth that there’s nonetheless quite a lot of room for growth by way of labor market development in that trade given what we’re seeing in client curiosity to return and have interaction.”

Components of the labor market that have been already sturdy usually bought stronger: Skilled and enterprise companies added 102,000 jobs in March, and retail commerce employment added 49,000 staff to its payrolls.