Hiring surged in February as the U.S. economy added 678,000 jobs, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg were anticipating a 423,000 increase.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.8%, the lowest since the start of the pandemic.
Job growth estimates from December and January were also revised upward.
“The labor market continues to be quite hot,” said Nick Bunker, an economist at Indeed, to The Wall Street Journal. “It looks like the labor market is still primed for lots of strong employment growth.”
“Wages, meanwhile, held steady, climbing by 1 cent. Annual wages are up 5.1 percent, although they have not kept up with inflation,” notes The Washington Post.
The outlet adds:
Still, the rosy picture caps off a string of 10 straight months of strong growth with the economy picking up a blockbuster 7 million jobs over the past year, particularly in service sectors such as hospitality, professional and business services, health care and construction.
The economy is still 2.1 million jobs short of its pre-pandemic levels and inflation is accelerating faster than it has in 40 years. It’s also unclear how the Russian invasion of Ukraine will impact America’s financial health.
But The New York Times highlights reasons to be optimistic:
Job openings are near a record high. Layoffs are at a new low. And hiring has remained strong in the ebb and flow of successive waves of the pandemic — employers have added at least 400,000 jobs every month since May, the longest such streak on record.
“This is an economy that has learned to manage very well through uncertainty,” said Robert Rosener, senior U.S. economist with Morgan Stanley. “We’ve continually been surprised by the resilience of the U.S. labor market.”
