Job creation isn't the most important part of the monthly employment report anymore. Instead, Wall Street is looking under the hood for clues about overall U.S. economic health.

Economists figure payrolls grew by about 200,000 in March, or slightly below the recent pace of 228,000 over the past three months. The unemployment rate probably will hold steady at 4.9 percent.

It's no secret that beneath these numbers, Federal Reserve policymakers are looking for signs of wage growth that has been elusive for most of the recovery. But there's a new wrinkle to that equation that points to an even longer delay in getting salary gains back to healthy levels.

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The labor-force participation rate measures how many potential workers are actually out looking for jobs. In recent years it has continued to fall to levels not seen since the late 1970s.

However, the level has been on a mild upswing, gaining half a percentage point since September 2015 to its current 62.9 percent level, the best since January 2015.