The labor force participation rate also ticked higher to 62.9%, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Labor Department, a positive sign that thousands of workers have gotten off the sidelines and re-entered the workforce.
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Steady growth in consumer spending underpinned the strong jobs gains in the retail and health-care sectors, easily offsetting the slowdown in global trade and huge oil company layoffs.
The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.9 percent.
This is a strong jobs increase over the previous month, when businesses added 151,000 jobs in January.
Average hourly earnings of private-sector workers fell 3 cents last month to $US25.35. The economy grew at a 1.0 percent pace in the fourth quarter of 2105.
“The February employment report is likely to give the Fed confidence that the labor market remains on solid footing while inflationary pressures remain subdued”, notes BNP Paribas’ Paul Mortimer-Lee and team.
Others, such as Jim O’Sullivan, chief USA economist at High Frequency Economics, say even fewer would be enough. It shows employment rebounded last month with 242,000 new jobs. Those could be signs that hiring may slow in coming months since employers typically adjust the hours of existing workers and bring on or lay off temporary employees before adding permanent staffers.
Ian Shepherdson, the chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, noted that the reason for the wages to have fallen might be because the survey for the jobs report was carried out before February 15, a payday for people who are remunerated on a semimonthly basis. “There weren’t actually mass firings of college professors that we’re aware of”, said Ted Wieseman, an economist at Morgan Stanley in NY.
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. “The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls declined by 0.2 hour to 34.4 hours in February”. He pointed out that 2 million people have joined the labor force since last fall.
Areas of the economy that have had heavy demand include the hospitality and service industries, compensating for weak numbers in the manufacturing, transportation and energy sectors.
“The one soft spot in the report was wage growth”.
The job growth figures come at a turbulent time for financial markets, with the S&P 500 dropping about 2.5 percent since the beginning of 2016. Sustained wage growth will help lift inflation closer to the central bank’s goal.
Retailers added 54,900 jobs last month.
Mining shed a further 18,000 jobs after losing 9,000 positions in January.
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The construction jobs continued to increase in February (19 000), reflecting another piece of the booming economy, construction and real estate.
