Policy Watch

• A consortium of six world powers including the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China reached an agreement for a deal with Iran yesterday that would greatly constrain that country’s nuclear capabilities for the next 25 years in exchange for the easing of Western economic sanctions. Iran would be forced to cut the number of its installed centrifuges for uranium enrichment from 19,000 to 6,104 and has agreed not to enrich uranium at a purity level above 3.67% for 15 years, significantly lower than the 90% purity needed for weapons grade material. As a result of the agreement, the European Union will suspend its economic, energy, and banking sanctions against Iran, while the U.S. will reduce constraints on American companies that want to establish economic and financial ties with the country. Sanctions related to terrorism, human rights, and ballistic missiles will remain in place, however. The Senate is expected to vote on April 14 on legislation to give final approval of the deal. [WSJ]

Economic Indicators & News

• The labor market softened in March as only 126,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy – a 5.23% decline from the revised estimate of 264,000 jobs created in February. Labor force participation marginally declined 0.1% to 62.7% while average hourly earnings rose slightly by 0.3% to $24.86 per hour. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.5%. The largest gains were in professional and business services, engineering services, health care, and retail. Employment in mining continued its downward trend in March with a net loss of 11,000 jobs. March’s reading for labor market growth was well below market expectations for 247,000 jobs to be created, especially given recent declines in initial unemployment claims. The average monthly employment gain in the first quarter of 2015 was 197,000, down significantly from an average of 324,000 in the fourth quarter of 2014. [BLS]