U.S. employment jumped in March, underscoring the economy’s resilience, but an influx of Americans into the labor market could restrain nascent wage gains and maintain the Federal Reserve’s cautious stance on raising interest rates.

    Nonfarm payrolls rose by 215,000 last month and the unemployment rate edged up to 5.0 percent from an eight-year low of 4.9 percent, the Labor Department said Friday. The jobless rate increased as more people continued to enter or re-enter the labor market, a sign of confidence in the job market.

    Average hourly earnings gained seven cents after slipping in February. The labor market has largely shrugged off slowing global economic growth, a robust U.S. dollar that has hurt manufacturing exports, and the negative impact of cheap oil prices on the energy sector.

    Economists see a limited impact on monetary policy in the near-term from the strong jobs report, as the growing number of people entering the labor market supported Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s view that hidden slack remained in the jobs market.

    The Fed also appears to be more focused on international developments. Yellen said last week that slowing world growth and lower oil prices posed a downside risk to the U.S. economic outlook, adding that she considered it appropriate for policymakers to “proceed cautiously in adjusting policy.”

    Fed officials last month downgraded their economic growth expectations and forecast only two rate hikes this year. The U.S. central bank raised its benchmark overnight interest rate in December for the first time in nearly a decade.

    Financial markets see a 27 percent chance of a hike at the Fed’s June policy meeting, a 52 percent chance of such a move in September and a 65 percent probability at the December meeting, according to CME FedWatch.(SD-Agencies)