The average workweek fell to a two-year low of 34.4 hours last month from 34.6 hours in January, but economists cautioned that the series tended to be volatile.
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February’s participation rate showed a small increase, rising by 0.2 percentage points, to 62.9 percent.
The number of long-term unemployed (people who have been jobless for 27 weeks or longer) was essentially unchanged at 2.2 million in February and has shown little movement since June, the government said. Wages have climbed 2.2 per cent from a year earlier, a significantly slower pace than prior months. Employment gains for January and December were raised by a combined 30,000, the Labor Department said Friday.
“It’s probably a better than a 50 per cent proposition that they will raise the rates in June”, said Kevin Logan, chief USA economist at the bank HSBC. The recent rout on Wall Street, due in part to economic woes in China, has been a major factor in the Fed’s decision to hold off on a further increase, Fed chair Janet Yellen told Congress last month.
Mining companies, including oil and gas drillers, have shed 130,600 jobs in the past 12 months. “More discouraged workers are starting to look for work again, preventing the unemployment rate from falling despite strong employment growth”. While the January jobs report saw average hourly earnings rise 0.5 percent, February’s report saw them slip by 0.1 percent.
For total nonfarm employment, the USA added 242,000 jobs in February.
This good employment report is the last that will be considered by the Fed before its monetary meeting on 15 and 16 March.
Comparing Santa Clarita’s unemployment numbers to Los Angeles County cities with a labor force of more than 70,000, the city sits right in the middle of the pack with Torrance coming at 4.1 percent and Glendale at 5.8 percent.
“Until we see faster wage growth, I would not expect to see a broad-based pickup in inflation pressure”, he said.
Professional and business services that mostly employ white-collar workers such as technicians and software developers only added 23,000 jobs.
Employment increases for last month were seen in retail, with 54,900 jobs added, there were slightly over 38,000 positions added in the health care field, and the restaurant/bar industry added over 40,000 jobs. January’s count of 151,000 new jobs – far lower than had been anticipated – was revised upward, to 172,000.
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The strong jobs market and improved growth outlook, together with signs that inflation is creeping up, could prompt the Fed to raise rates in the summer. According to NBC News, the unemployment rate remains at 4.9 percent. That improvement followed a solid 2015, when sales achieved their highest level in nine years. “There weren’t actually mass firings of college professors that we’re aware of”, said Ted Wieseman, an economist at Morgan Stanley in NY.
