Mubasher: US hiring growth pace slowed more than forecasts in March, while jobless rate remained unexpectedly steady at 17-year low during the month.

The US economy added 103,000 non-farm payrolls last month, following a much larger increase of 326,000 new jobs in February, data by the US Bureau of Labour Statistics showed on Friday.

Economists, polled by Wall Street Journal (WSJ), had expected adding 178,000 new jobs during March.

Meanwhile,unemployment rate stayed at 4.1%, unchanged from the previous month, but missing analysts’ expectations of a decrease towards 4%.

The average hourly earnings in the private sector reached $26.82 last month, up 8 cents from February and 71 cents from March 2017.

By 12:50 pm GMT, the EUR/USD pair slipped by 0.11% to $1.2226.