Friday’s jobs report will surely be monitored closely by the Federal Reserve and the presidential candidates as a measure of how well the economy is rebounding from the Great Recession six and a half years ago.
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Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 242,000 jobs in February, but the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says Friday. Over the past three months, employers have added a strong 228,000 jobs.
February’s unemployment rate held steady at an eight-year low of 4.9 percent of the workforce.
Fed Chair Janet Yellen has said the economy needs to create just under 100,000 jobs a month to keep up with growth in the working-age population.
Figures for the two previous months of December and January were revised, from 262,000 to 271,000 jobs added in December 2015, and 151,000 to 172,000 in January this year.
“The improvement in the labor force participation rate is particularly encouraging”.
Average hourly earnings dipped 0.1 per cent in February, the first drop since December 2014, after spiking 0.5 per cent in January. The gov’s official figures also showed that unemployment for February came out at a low 4.9%. The participation rate, which has been dropping and reached its lowest point in decades, has been a worrying part of the recovery as economists wonder whether those who lost their job during the recession will return to work.
Economists surveyed by CNNMoney had predicted a gain of 190,000 jobs in February.
Health care added 38,000 jobs for the month, many of them in ambulatory health-care service facilities, the kind of places that set up shop in neighborhood or community centers, though standard hospitals are adding jobs as well. With the turmoil continuing in global markets, investors have felt mostly confident that an interest-rate hike from the Fed has been temporarily delayed.
“Labour market trends remain firmly intact”, said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in NY.
The health of the labor market will play a role in deciding the race for the White House.
Fewer hours: One possible trouble spot in the report: The average workweek fell by 0.2 hours (about 12 minutes), the biggest one-month drop in more than two years.
But the slowing world economy took its toll in other areas of the USA economy. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months.
The positive report – in excess of predictions by economists – caps 72 months of uninterrupted job gains, the longest streak on record.
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Manufacturers and energy companies also eliminated more higher-paid jobs as they cope with falling exports and cheaper oil prices. Unemployment below 5% is considered at or very close to “full employment”.
