Last week’s economic data was supportive the recent downward trend in inflation, giving the Federal Reserve room to slow down rate hikes. A dovish Fed stance is seen as necessary to help the economy navigate the credit crunch caused by the banking crisis.

Weekly jobless claims data showed a modest increase, but the tightening labor market seen since last year gives the Fed reason to remain on course. Any sign of a rupture in the labor market will be viewed positively by the market.

House prices continue to rebound around the bottom amid higher mortgage rates, according to two separate surveys released last week. The ISM-Chicago regional business barometer edged higher in March, but remained at levels signaling continued contraction.

Here are the key economic data on investors’ radars this week:

Jobs, jobs and more jobs: Three separate job market reports will be published in the coming week. The most important of these is the Bureau of Labor Statistics report on non-farm payrolls for March. The data falls Friday at 8:30 am EDT, which happens to be a market holiday to commemorate “Good Friday.”

• Economists expect the nonfarm payrolls to rise by 238,000 in March, slower than in February. The unemployment rate, based on household surveys, is expected to remain unchanged at 3.6%.

The annual rate of average hourly wages, often taken as a measure of inflation, may have slowed to 4.3% from 4.6%.

ADP is scheduled to release its private payroll data Wednesday at 8:15 a.m. EDT. The number is often seen as a precursor to the BLS data released two days later, although the two numbers usually don’t correlate perfectly. Personal payroll growth may have slowed to 205k in March from 242k in February.

The Department of Labor will release its usual weekly jobless claims data Thursday at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

Challenger monthly downsizing data is released Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. EDT. There is a Compilation of job cuts in companies announced during a…